Tens of thousands of migrants sent to Mexico and denied asylum claims by the Trump administration will soon have the chance to enter the country and reapply.
The Biden administration will allow noncitizens who were pushed back from the United States into Mexico by the Trump administration to apply to be processed for asylum claims, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday. The decision could affect as many as 34,000 migrants.
The move is the latest by the White House to walk back policies enacted by the Trump administration that significantly limited the admission of immigrants into the U.S.
President Joe Biden suspended the Migrant Protection Protocols program, known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, in his first days in office in January. The DHS, which was responsible for implementing it, instructed employees in early June to stop turning away asylum-seekers.
The program was implemented in January 2019, and since then, 67,000 people have been enrolled. Migrants who presented to federal law enforcement officers at border crossings or who were arrested after sneaking over the border had been pushed to Mexico to live in tent cities while they waited months for immigration court proceedings. Noncitizens have a legal right to seek asylum.
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The Biden administration faces criticism from political allies and opponents over its handling of the surge in arrivals to the southern border.
The White House said earlier this month that the border was still closed, even as it moved to end the Trump-era program.
“Our message is still: ‘This is a dangerous time to come,'” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
She said the “Remain in Mexico” rule “led to dangerous and inhumane conditions along Mexico’s northern border, in part because of the camps and the conditions at the camps,” and that it failed to “adequately or sustainably enhance border management.
“So, our message continues to be: ‘This is not the time to come.’ We want to have an effective immigration system in place, including asylum processing at our border.”
Eighty-six percent of asylum-seekers had their cases closed as a result of not showing up on their day in court, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University in New York. The extortion and kidnapping of migrants living in the tent cities were well documented and affected people’s ability to make it to court. In addition, migrants struggled to fill out legal paperwork, which was required to be in English. Just 1.6% of asylum-seekers enrolled in the “Remain in Mexico” program were granted asylum.
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House Democrats who toured a massive outdoor camp across the border from Brownsville, Texas, in 2020 lamented the slumlike conditions in the tent city, including insufficient clean water, improper sanitation systems, and a lack of medical care. Asylum-seekers waited even longer in Mexico once the coronavirus pandemic commenced in early 2020 and immigration courts shut down and refused to hear cases.
More than 11,000 asylum-seekers have been allowed to enter the U.S. and make their plea since Biden took office. Those now allowed to return will have to register through a United Nations-run website.
