A new Mexican law has brought about a substantial change at the border: US authorities are no longer able to return immigrants to the neighboring country.
Donald Trump’s administration started rejecting asylum seekers at the border in March last year thanks to an emergency order due to the coronavirus pandemic: on the grounds of preventing contamination admission was sealed in practice of immigrants, who were sent back to Mexico.
However, the Mexican government passed a reform of its immigration law in November prohibits the detention of migrant children and families, for which it no longer accepts the dispatch of these immigrants through Customs and Border Protection (CBP, for the acronym in English), government officials chaired by Joe Biden told The New York Times and The Washington Post.
More and more people are crossing the border illegally, overcrowded US detention centers in some cities. Stephanie Malin, a CBP spokeswoman, said that due to pandemic precautions and social distance guidelines, some facilities have reached their “safe detention capacity.”
The Border Patrol performed more than 73,000 arrests in December, roughly double the more than 40,000 registered in July. Daily arrests have also increased over the past week, a trend driven by family groups and children, according to US officials.
In some parts of the border, agents are unable to return these immigrants to Mexico, nor do they have room to hold them. They then have one option: release them pending the settlement of their asylum application.
The impact on the border: only in a few cities
National security officials say Trump’s pandemic emergency warrant was needed to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in detention centers, even though it has prevented vulnerable families from filing asylum applications.
Since the March issue, the US authorities have have expelled more than 390,000 migrants to Mexico or their country of origin. The rule reduced the number of immigrants detained by allowing agents to circumvent regular refugee application procedures and expedite deportations. 90% of those who crossed the border illegally were deported.
[La situación de miles de migrantes en la frontera de México empeora a diario]
The New Mexican Standard changes this situation. “Mexico now only accepts single adults, not families or childrenA US official told The Washington Post.
The measure, which took effect in January, does not affect the entire border in the same way.
In South Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, the busiest part of the border for illegal crossings, adults arriving with children are now taken to the Border Patrol station in McAllen to be searched and then usually release them, immigration officials said .
The Biden administration already cannot send these immigrants to the Mexican town on the other side of the border, Reynosa. In recent years, Central American families have chosen that route to enter the United States, fleeing the persecution, violence and poverty of their countries of origin.
But in other places like Nogales, Arizona, US agents also continue to deport adults and entire families, left on the streets of Mexico instead of in shelters.
It is also unclear how the rule affects other parts of the border. The Mexican authorities did not comment on the change, nor did they provide specifications.
The change poses a challenge to the new administration. One of the main concerns is the widespread liberation of parents and children caused a wave of immigration, as has happened on other occasions.
Cities on the border also fear that there will be an increase in infectionsas migrants are often released without being tested for coronavirus.
“We can handle a sudden rise [de familias]we can handle the arrival of immigrants, but the difference is now clearly COVID-19, ”said Roel Rodríguez, council manager for the city of McAllen, Texas.
How families are still being expelled
Biden has vowed to reinstate asylum claims on the southern border and signed a series of executive orders this week ordering the government to review Trump’s restrictive policies, such as the Stay in Mexico program.
The new administration, however, has not been made public when the emergency rule would be lifted because of the pandemic founded by Trump and which in practice continues to expel migrant families.
A federal judge lifted the rule, allowing the United States to refuse unaccompanied migrant children. The White House has said it will stop deporting minors, allowing them to go to US shelters.
[Biden propondrá un camino a la ciudadanía para los indocumentados y acabar con la prohibición del asilo. ¿Qué tan rápido puede lograrse?]
Biden has also told migrants considering travel that “this is not the time to come to the United States.” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last week It takes time “To start an immigration process so that people can be treated humanely.”
Mexico’s Migration Policy
Mexico, for its part, has celebrated some of Biden’s first actions in favor of migrants, promising to cooperate, but without clarifying how it will do so or what aid it will provide.
Despite several explicit inquiries from Noticias Telemundo, the Mexican government has not elaborated or specified what will be done on the Mexican side or details of this potential collaborative program to address the causes of migration due to poverty and violence.
The country’s decision to ban the detention of minors has had good reception among human rights defenders.
[México nunca pagó el muro fronterizo. Pero ¿y el resto de promesas de Trump?]
“Mexico is taking a decisive step to end the detention of children for immigration purposes and this development is promising and encouraging,” said Gillian Triggs, Deputy High Commissioner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
With information from The New York Times and The Washington Post.