As part of its efforts to phase out a Trump-era policy that kept tens of thousands of asylum seekers out of U.S. territory, the Biden administration admitted on Friday the first group of migrants previously had to wait in Mexico in their immigration court. hearings.
US border officials treated 25 Hispanic asylum seekers at the San Ysidro port of entry in Southern California and allowed them to remain in the country for the duration of their proceedings.
The San Diego Jewish Family Service received the asylum seekers, who had to test negative for the coronavirus, and took them to a hotel in the area for quarantine, said Michael Hopkins, the nonprofit’s CEO. The group consisted of six families and five people from Honduras, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Cuba.
“It’s the beginning of a new day for our country,” Hopkins told CBS News. “The Remain-in-Mexico program was inhumane in many ways.”
A US administration asylum official who has interviewed people who participated in Trump-era policies praised the Biden administration’s efforts, saying that migrants allowed to enter the US will now “judge their claims fairly.”
“Today was a day of hope. We finally saw 25 people welcomed with dignity,” Taylor Levy, a lawyer who has helped dozens of asylum seekers who have returned to Mexico, told CBS News. “It is such a tremendous sigh of relief that finally, at least for the 25 people, there will be justice and hope.”
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To deter migration to the US, in 2019 the Trump administration implemented a program it called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which ultimately resulted in more than 70,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers being returned to Mexico pending their hearings in the US.
Many were sent back to places in northern Mexico plagued by violence and crime, and waited months and even years for their hearings in the US in filthy migrant tent camps. The largest camp is located in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, an area that the United States Department of State warns not to visit.
The Human Rights First group documented more than 1,500 reports of assault, kidnapping, rape, threat and even murder of migrants returning the US to Mexico under MPP policy, according to a list updated Friday.
The chances of obtaining legal aid also turned out to be low for most migrants returning to Mexico. According to government data collected by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, more than 65,000 of the asylum seekers subject to the policy had no lawyers to represent them in court.
The Department of Homeland Security stopped placing asylum seekers on the MPP program shortly after President Biden’s inauguration, who vigorously denounced the practice during his presidential campaign.
The admission of 25 asylum seekers in California on Friday marked the start of a new process that the Biden government has set up with the help of nonprofits, international groups and the United Nations Refugee Agency to gradually take in migrants with pending Remain-in-Mexico. so that they can stay with family or friends in the US
“Today, we took the first step to begin the safe, efficient and humane handling of eligible persons at the border,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.
An estimated 25,000 people could qualify for Phase 1 of the process, but the number of asylum seekers that will be admitted at this phase is likely to be less as many migrants with pending US affairs have left Mexico and returned to their home countries.
Recently apprehended migrants who have never been enrolled in the program are ineligible for this trial and are still facing prompt expulsion under a Trump-era public health order that the Biden administration has provisionally upheld. In his statement Friday, Mayorkas warned would-be migrants not to take the “dangerous journey” north.
“Travel restrictions at the border remain and will be enforced,” he said.
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The US will begin processing more eligible asylum seekers in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas on Monday and in El Paso later next week. Once fully operational, the ports of entry at these initial locations are expected to process around 300 migrants per day.
On Friday, the United Nations Refugee Agency unveiled a website where eligible migrants can register to get an appointment to enter the U.S. DHS has said it will prioritize the admission of asylum seekers who have been in the country the longest. Mexico have been waiting, as have those who are. are medically vulnerable or imminent.
The Biden government requires all migrants to test negative for the coronavirus at bus stops in Mexico before entering the US. Asylum seekers who test positive must be isolated in Mexico for 10 days. After completing that isolation period and not having a fever for 24 hours, these individuals could be considered re-entering the US, the State Department said Thursday.
The DHS has said that asylum seekers entering the US under the Remain-in-Mexico admission will generally not be sent to detention centers. Instead, they are referred to local shelters and groups such as Jewish Family Service so they can access temporary housing before leaving for their respective US destinations.
Hopkins, the CEO of the Jewish Family Service in San Diego, said his group plans to continue to use hotels to provide temporary housing for asylum seekers. Through private donations and funds from California and the federal government, Hopkins’ group will provide newly admitted migrants with clothing, food, other supplies such as diapers, and assistance with transportation.
“Most come with very little money and very few assets,” Hopkins said.