In Biden v. Texas, the attorneys general of Missouri and Texas sued after the Biden administration ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

The Department of Homeland Security began the MPP in 2019 under President Donald Trump. It tasks agents with returning illegal immigrants seeking asylum to Mexico as they work their way through the U.S. legal system.

On his first day in office, the Biden administration announced it would no longer carry out the program. The administration argued the policy in question was inhumane, strained the U.S. relationship with Mexico, and created chaos. Texas and Missouri argued the administration’s plan is more chaotic and hurts the American public by releasing thousands of illegal immigrants into U.S. communities.

The federal government argued it needs Mexico’s cooperation to carry out the policy, which ties its hands.

In a news conference after oral arguments, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rebuffed that claim, pointing out the Trump administration was able to successfully work with Mexico to quickly deport migrants.

“This is a really important case… In my opinion, we’ve all become border states. It affects all of us,” Paxton said.

Since Biden took office, illegal immigration has soared, raising more concerns about the president’s policies. Border Patrol reported more than 2 million encounters with people crossing the southern border illegally in 2021. Those numbers remain elevated this year.

“In total, there were 221,303 encounters along the southwest land border in March, a 33 percent increase compared to February,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported earlier this month. “Of those, 28 percent involved individuals who had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months, compared to an average one-year re-encounter rate of 14 percent for FY2014-2019.”

U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas ruled in August that the Biden administration must reinstate the MPP, saying they violated federal law by discontinuing it. In August, the Supreme Court said it would not immediately overturn that order.

“The applicants have failed to show a likelihood of success on the claim that the memorandum rescinding the Migrant Protection Protocols was not arbitrary and capricious,” that order read.

But the case was back before the nation’s highest court Tuesday.

During oral arguments, the justices grilled both sides and questioned the public benefit of releasing illegal immigrants into the U.S. and the process used by the Department of Homeland Security to evaluate and release migrants. They also raised concerns about funding, asking what else could be done if DHS does not have the resources to detain migrants and Mexico is hesitant to take them back.

The federal government stressed that it did not have the room to detain the hundreds of thousands of migrants encountered at the border every month.

“So you agree that Congress has expressed a preference for detention when that is available,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked the federal government’s attorney, to which she agreed.

Supporters of the Biden administration’s policy change argued it was more humane to migrants.

“For over three years, MPP has forced thousands of asylum seekers to wait for their asylum hearings in dangerous border towns, subjecting them to systemic danger and violence,” said Joan Rosenhauer, executive director of Jesuit Refugee Service. “JRS works directly with people in northern Mexico as they await their opportunity to pursue asylum and find safety in the U.S. We hear every day of the violence and suffering they experience.”

Biden also has taken fire for his decision to end Title 42 enforcement May 23. A Trump-era provision, Title 42 allows border agents to quickly expel illegal immigrants to prevent the spread of COVID-19 into the U.S. A federal judge on Monday blocked his lifting of that provision.

“I view Missouri as a proxy for all the others states impacted by the crisis we have at the border,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said. “Today, this is a central question about the rule of law and border security. We are very hopeful for a positive decision and result here.

“The drug trafficking, human trafficking doesn’t stop in El Paso,” he added.

Source: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/u-s-supreme-court-hears-arguments-in-remain-in-mexico-lawsuit/article_2d1caa2c-c57c-11ec-a771-6b07761ad4d0.html

The post U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in ‘Remain in Mexico’ lawsuit first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

President Biden halted the returns when he took office, but in September a U.S. District Court ordered his administration to reinstate the program, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. After months of negotiations with Mexico, the Biden administration relaunched MPP in early December, starting in El Paso.

Immigration advocates were furious, blaming Biden for not pushing back harder. But two months after its restart, the new version of MPP bears little resemblance to President Donald Trump’s. The Biden administration has re-implemented the program with a narrow scope and none of the zeal demonstrated by Trump officials.

Border arrests are even higher now than in 2019, but El Paso’s immigration courts remain light on MPP cases. On a recent afternoon, two MPP enrollees, both adult men from Nicaragua, appeared before immigration judge Nathan L. Herbert. The next day, there were three.

“Do you have a fear of return to Nicaragua?” Herbert asked the men, who had been waiting in Ciudad Juárez for their court appointment after being arrested by U.S. border agents six weeks earlier near Del Rio, Tex. The men answered yes.

Herbert set their asylum hearings for early March and asked the men whether they feared a return to Mexico. They said yes. A U.S. asylum officer would have to evaluate their claims before they could be returned to Ciudad Juárez.

Trump sent nearly 70,000 asylum seekers back to Mexico under MPP, using the program as a deterrent for the record numbers of Central American families who were crossing the border and hoping to be released into the United States while awaiting court hearings. Kidnappings, robberies and other attacks on returned asylum seekers in Mexico were rampant, and thousands of MPP enrollees languished in a grubby Rio Grande tent camp that became a symbol of MPP’s dysfunction.

The biggest difference under Biden has been the scale of returns. His administration was ordered to restore MPP “in good faith,” but the court did not set quotas. So far the Department of Homeland Security has sent back about 410 MPP enrollees, according to the latest U.N. figures, equivalent to about seven asylum seekers per day border wide, compared with 300 to 400 returned daily in summer 2019.

The U.N. figures show the number of returns declined from about 270 in December to about 140 in January.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), whose lawsuit forced Biden to restart MPP, called the low numbers “outrageous.”

“I secured a win in district court that compels Biden to re-implement Remain-in-Mexico,” Paxton wrote in a tweet. “Biden MUST use MPP to send illegals back to Mexico. He’s violating the Court’s order, and I won’t let it stand.”

Paxton’s office did not respond to calls seeking clarification regarding what additional legal recourse, if any, he is considering.

Biden officials say the numbers will increase over the coming months. But they have limited the program almost exclusively to adult men, while exempting those considered vulnerable on the basis of mental and physical health issues, advanced age, or sexual orientation or gender identity.

Biden has used MPP almost exclusively for young men from Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba. Those nations have strained relations with the United States — the U.S. government doesn’t even recognize Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro as the country’s legitimate president — making deportations difficult.

Biden officials say they are selecting migrants from those nations for MPP because Mexico will not accept their returns under the emergency public health authority known as Title 42, which has been used during the coronavirus pandemic and remains the U.S. government’s primary border management tool. It allows U.S. authorities to skirt standard immigration proceedings and rapidly “expel” migrants, including asylum seekers, to their home countries or to Mexico, in order to avoid the spread of infections inside detention centers.

Fewer returns, but for some, a welcome shot at U.S. asylum
Mexico has set limits on the return of migrants by U.S. authorities, insisting MPP returns should occur only if there is sufficient shelter space, and quarantine capacity for those who test positive for the coronavirus. U.S. officials said they are working with Mexico to boost its capacity to take more MPP enrollees.

“We are subject to Mexico’s requirements in terms of the restrictions they place on individuals subject to returns, and we just got hit with the omicron variant, which has had a substantial impact on our ability to return people,” said a senior Department of Homeland Security official who described operational details of the program on the condition of anonymity, citing ongoing litigation.

The DHS official also attributed the low MPP numbers to limited U.S. capacity and the additional safeguards added under Biden. U.S. officials now ask MPP candidates whether they fear a return to Mexico, which officials did not do under Trump. About 85 to 90 percent of MPP enrollees say they do fear harm in Mexico; 10 to 15 percent are found to face a “reasonable possibility” of harm, the official said.

The Biden administration has drafted a new memo seeking to terminate MPP. But officials say they will abide by the court order while the injunction remains in place, and they plan to expand the program over the coming months if strains on shelter capacity and staffing from the virus ease. On Friday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals certified its denial of the Biden administration’s challenge to the lower court order reinstating MPP. The court had rejected the government’s arguments in a sharply worded 117-page opinion in December.

MPP will expand next to Laredo, Tex., and has already been re-implemented in San Diego and Brownsville, Tex., as well as El Paso.

GOP critics say the Biden administration is flouting the court and squandering a proven enforcement tool that discourages spurious asylum claims, pointing to MPP’s role in breaking the momentum of the 2019 border surge.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told reporters Wednesday he visited the temporary court facilities the Biden administration has set up for MPP hearings in Brownsville and found them “empty.”

“The federal taxpayers are paying millions of dollars for a decorative item so the Biden administration can tell the courts we’re implementing MPP but not actually doing it,” Lankford said.

One twist of Biden’s MPP restart is that it has opened a quicker path to U.S. asylum for some migrants at a time when most other avenues remain closed off by the Title 42 pandemic expulsions.

The Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Cubans who have been the vast majority of MPP enrollees under Biden tend to have stronger claims for asylum or some form of humanitarian protection, because the United States denounces their governments as repressive and authoritarian.

“MPP gave me a chance,” said Boris, a Nicaraguan asylum seeker who spoke on the condition that his last name be withheld because he still fears possible deportation.

Boris, 29, crossed the border between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso in early December and was among the first group of migrants to be placed in MPP under Biden. Boris said he faces persecution in his home country for protesting against the government of President Daniel Ortega, who was sworn in for a fourth term last year in an election the Biden administration denounced as “a sham.”

Boris returned from Mexico to the El Paso immigration court in early January, describing his fear of persecution through the help of an interpreter. He also told the court that he suffered from a chronic lung condition that would endanger his life if he was returned to Mexican shelters.

The judge exempted him from MPP, and he was released to a church-operated shelter with dozens of others he said had contracted the coronavirus. Five days later, he joined his cousins at their Austin-area apartment, and awaits another court date next week.

“They handed me my papers and sent me off,” Boris said. “I don’t know why or how. Now I’m here, safe and happy to be here, hoping I won’t be deported.”

Sent back to Ciudad Juárez
Under Trump, asylum seekers sent to Mexico were often confused and adrift, unsure how to find legal help or return for their U.S. court appointments. They were visible on the streets of Mexican border cities and were easy targets for criminal gangs.

Marysol Castro, an attorney with El Paso’s Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services who provides legal aid to asylum seekers in MPP, said the program’s return under Biden was a “relief” to some, “because otherwise if you go to the border you’re getting expelled” under Title 42.

Castro said new enrollees in MPP have court dates with fast-tracked hearings, unlike asylum seekers who were placed into the program under Trump and are still stuck in Mexico “with no hope.”

Mexican authorities say they received assurances from the Biden administration that migrants placed in MPP would have improved access to legal counsel. But despite the vastly lower numbers, there is still far more demand for pro bono legal services than nonprofit groups and charities can provide, Castro said.

More than two-thirds of MPP returns under Biden have been sent to Ciudad Juárez, where they are provided secure transportation through a State Department contract with the U.N. International Organization for Migration. The Mexican government houses them in a shelter set up in a converted warehouse in an industrial area of the city.

“The shelters are more restrictive,” said Victor Hugo Lopez, a Mexican official who helps oversee the program. “The migrants can request permits to go outside, but we try to keep them safe by keeping them inside.”

Dana Graber Ladek, the IOM chief of mission in Mexico, said her organization continues to oppose MPP on principle, even as it’s working with both governments to ameliorate conditions for those sent back.

“It still has a tremendous amount of negative impacts,” she said. “It’s not how asylum is supposed to work.”

Hernández reported from San Antonio.

By Nick Miroff
Nick Miroff covers immigration enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for The Washington Post. He was a Post foreign correspondent in Latin America from 2010 to 2017, and has been a staff writer since 2006.

By Arelis Hernández
Arelis Hernández is a Texas-based border correspondent on the national desk working with the immigration team and roving the U.S. southern border. Hernández joined the Post in 2014 to cover politics and government on the local desk after spending four years as a breaking news and crime reporter at the Orlando Sentinel.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/04/biden-mpp-mexico/

The post ‘Remain in Mexico’ is back under Biden, with little resemblance to the Trump version first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The United States and Mexico last month agreed to relaunch the controversial scheme known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), in keeping with a U.S. federal court order.

U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has struggled to reverse many hardline immigration policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden ended MPP soon after his inauguration in January as he sought to pursue what he called a more humane approach to immigration. But a federal judge ruled Biden’s move did not follow proper procedure, and in August ordered MPP reinstated.

The program first resumed in December at the international crossing connecting El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez. More than 200 people have been returned to Mexico so far under the relaunch of MPP, according to the U.N.’s International Organization of Migration (OIM).

Two migrants were returned to Tijuana, across from California, on Wednesday with future appointments in U.S. courts, an official with OIM told Reuters.

The migrant rights advocacy group Al Otro Lado told Reuters the two men were Colombian nationals.

Neither U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) nor Mexico’s immigration agency immediately responded to requests for comment.

The United Nations’ refugee agency and advocacy groups have criticized the restart of the Trump-era policy, warning migrants face the risk of kidnapping, rape, and extortion in dangerous Mexican border towns.

Under the original 2019 program, some 70,000 migrants seeking asylum were forced to wait weeks and sometimes years in Mexico for a U.S. court date instead of being allowed to await their hearings in the United States.

MEXICO CITY, Jan 5 (Reuters) – The United States on Wednesday began returning migrants to the Mexican city of Tijuana in an restart of a Trump-era program that forces asylum seekers to wait for U.S. court hearings in Mexico, Mexican authorities and the U.N. migration agency said.

The United States and Mexico last month agreed to relaunch the controversial scheme known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), in keeping with a U.S. federal court order. U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has struggled to reverse many hardline immigration policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden ended MPP soon after his inauguration in January as he sought to pursue what he called a more humane approach to immigration. But a federal judge ruled Biden’s move did not follow proper procedure, and in August ordered MPP reinstated.

The program first resumed in December at the international crossing connecting El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez. More than 200 people have been returned to Mexico so far under the relaunch of MPP, according to the U.N.’s International Organization of Migration (OIM).

Two migrants were returned to Tijuana, across from California, on Wednesday with future appointments in U.S. courts, an official with OIM told Reuters.

The migrant rights advocacy group Al Otro Lado told Reuters the two men were Colombian nationals.

Neither U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) nor Mexico’s immigration agency immediately responded to requests for comment.

The United Nations’ refugee agency and advocacy groups have criticized the restart of the Trump-era policy, warning migrants face the risk of kidnapping, rape, and extortion in dangerous Mexican border towns.

Under the original 2019 program, some 70,000 migrants seeking asylum were forced to wait weeks and sometimes years in Mexico for a U.S. court date instead of being allowed to await their hearings in the United States.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-begins-returning-migrants-mexican-border-city-under-rebooted-trump-era-policy-2022-01-05/

The post U.S. begins returning migrants to Mexican border city under rebooted Trump-era policy first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Mexico City: The United States on Wednesday began returning migrants to the Mexican city of Tijuana in an restart of a Trump-era program that forces asylum seekers to wait for U.S. court hearings in Mexico, Mexican authorities and the U.N. migration agency said.

The United States and Mexico last month agreed to relaunch the controversial scheme known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), in keeping with a US federal court order.

U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has struggled to reverse many hardline immigration policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden ended MPP soon after his inauguration in January as he sought to pursue what he called a more humane approach to immigration. But a federal judge ruled Biden’s move did not follow proper procedure, and in August ordered MPP reinstated.

The program first resumed in December at the international crossing connecting El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez. More than 200 people have been returned to Mexico so far under the relaunch of MPP, according to the U.N.’s International Organization of Migration (OIM).

Two migrants were returned to Tijuana, across from California, on Wednesday with future appointments in U.S. courts, an official with OIM told Reuters.

The migrant rights advocacy group Al Otro Lado told Reuters the two men were Colombian nationals.

Neither U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) nor Mexico’s immigration agency immediately responded to requests for comment.

The United Nations’ refugee agency and advocacy groups have criticized the restart of the Trump-era policy, warning migrants face the risk of kidnapping, rape, and extortion in dangerous Mexican border towns.

Under the original 2019 program, some 70,000 migrants seeking asylum were forced to wait weeks and sometimes years in Mexico for a U.S. court date instead of being allowed to await their hearings in the United States.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-mexico-relations-us-mexico-border-joe-biden-struggles-with-trump-era-policy-as-us-returns-mexican-migrants-2691625

The post Joe Biden Struggles With Trump-Era Policy As US Returns Mexican Migrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — The controversial Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy — which forced migrants to wait south of the border in Mexico during their immigration proceedings — could begin again “within the coming weeks,” according to a federal court brief filed this week by Justice Department officials.

The four-page document filed Monday in Amarillo, Texas, said that the government of Mexico is close to accepting migrants who are sent back from the United States under the program, formally called Migrant Protection Protocols or MPP.

DHS “is ready to reimplement MPP shortly after the Government of Mexico (GOM) makes an independent decision to accept the return of individuals that the Department seeks to enroll in the program,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton wrote.

Mexico apparently has one major sticking point, although the brief does not detail what it is.

A previous court filing on Oct. 14 listed several concerns by Mexico, including how many migrants will be returned daily, whether non-Spanish speakers will be sent back, and assurances that vulnerable individuals, like the sick, elderly or LGBTQ will not be sent back.

“Regular and high-level meetings” have been held with Mexican officials “to discuss the GOM’s concerns about the prior implementation of MPP and to work through possible solutions,” according to the court brief. They’ve “made significant progress and are close to finalizing these discussions.”

Although the Biden administration halted MPP when Joe Biden took office, the states of Texas and Missouri have sued the federal government to have the program reimplemented. In August, the Supreme Court refused to block a lower court’s injunction ordering the program be restarted.

Monday’s brief was a second supplemental notice of compliance by the defendants, but it signaled that MPP is close to being restarted.

Over 71,000 migrants were forced south of the border after the program began in 2019.

Migrant advocates say it is illegal and inhumane and puts migrants’ lives at risk by forcing them to live in dangerous northern Mexican border towns rife with killings and kidnappings.

“We think the use of MPP as a deterrent is unlawful and inhumane and denies people due process,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy council for the American Immigration Council, told Border Report on Tuesday.

Reichlin-Melnick says the Biden administration cannot guarantee that migrants living in Mexico will have access to proper legal advice in the United States.

“There are no measures that can be taken to ensure that those in MPP have the same access to counsel as those inside the United States. It is literally impossible. Therefore, any attempt by the U.S. and Mexican governments to work out an agreement where there would be supposedly access to counsel is at its heart a sham because, as the secretary has acknowledged, it’s not possible,” Melnick said.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@ReichlinMelnick
In a new court filing, @DHSgov says that it will likely be reinstating the Remain in Mexico program (the Orwellianly-named Migrant Protection Protocols) “within the coming weeks.”

They say negotiations with Mexico are down to just one final issue. What a sham and a farce.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Oct. 29 issued a 30-page memo to terminate the policy decrying that: “MPP had endemic flaws, imposed unjustifiable human costs, pulled resources and personnel away from other priority efforts, and did not address the root causes of irregular migration.”

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research organization from Syracuse University, this week reported that in October there were 18 asylum-seekers placed in MPP, according to court documents obtained by the organization.

However, TRAC researcher Austin Kocher told Border Report they have not come to any conclusive understanding on how those cases got classified into a program that ostensibly has not been restarted. “But 18 is not a fluke. Still, the number is small enough (and things are more confusing now policy-wise) that it’s hard to say exactly what’s up,” he said.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, which lists MPP entries dating back to 2019, has zero listed for placement in October.

Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the United States-Mexico border.
https://www.borderreport.com/

Border Report has reached out to DHS officials for clarification on this data. This story will be updated if additional information is received.

Sandra Sanchez can be reached at Ssanchez@borderreport.com.

Source: https://www.borderreport.com/hot-topics/immigration/remain-in-mexico-policy-could-restart-in-coming-weeks-doj-officials-tell-federal-court/

The post ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy could restart in ‘coming weeks,’ DOJ officials tell federal court first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The moves are part of a plan by the administration of President Joe Biden to end the program, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), an effort complicated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and concerns over illegal immigration.

The Trump administration launched the program in 2019 as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on the ability to seek asylum in the United States, which Trump officials depicted as rife with fraud and meritless claims.

The initiative forced more than 65,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers back across the border to wait for their U.S. court hearings, although far fewer are believed to still be waiting in Mexico.

The Biden administration will begin by working to process about 25,000 migrants with active claims in the program, officials said on Thursday. The new guidelines will require migrants to register online or via phone, be tested for the coronavirus in Mexico and then come to a U.S. port of entry on a specific day.

The news was welcomed with relief in a sprawling migrant camp in the Mexican city of Matamoros, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

“I’ve been reading all the articles,” said Salvadoran asylum seeker Sandra Andrade, who has been waiting in Mexico for over a year to resolve her U.S. court case. “Honestly, I have no words for how I’m feeling right now!”

Biden vowed on the campaign trail to roll back restrictive Trump-era immigration policies, including MPP, which is informally known as “remain in Mexico.” His administration suspended new entries into the program when he took office on Jan. 20, but did not immediately put forward a plan to bring the people enrolled in it into the United States. Some have been waiting for as long as two years.

Republicans embracing Trump’s hardline immigration views have criticized the ending of MPP and could use it as fuel for political attacks if illegal border crossings increase on Biden’s watch.

Top Biden officials have stressed in recent weeks that migrants should not attempt to enter the United States, saying they need time to build up the capacity to process more asylum seekers.

“Individuals who are not eligible under this initial phase should wait for further instructions and not travel to the border,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement accompanying the MPP announcement. “Due to the current pandemic, restrictions at the border remain in place and will be enforced.”

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador echoed that message on Friday, saying migrants should not think “the gates of the northern border are open” or believe human smugglers who say as much.

During a call with reporters on Thursday evening, three Biden administration officials described the plans to process MPP enrollees, with the first phase beginning on Feb. 19.

The officials, all of whom requested anonymity, only outlined procedures for people with active cases in U.S. immigration courts. Those with non-active cases, many of whom may have returned to their home countries, “will have other opportunities,” one of the officials said.

Under the plan, migrants will need to register with international organizations over the internet or by phone and await instructions. One of the organizations will also handle coronavirus testing in Mexico, another official said.

Biden officials declined to identify the organizations on Thursday. However, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the refugee agency would work with both the U.S. and Mexican governments to ensure migrants in the program could safely enter the United States.

STARTING SMALL

The migrants’ claims will initially be heard at three ports of entry along the border, with organizations working to identify those in line the longest and those deemed particularly vulnerable.

At two of the ports, the Biden administration expects to process 300 people per day at each port. The effort will expand to additional ports over time.

“We will start small,” said one of the officials.

The Biden officials declined to name the ports where the administration planned to begin processing, citing concerns that people would rush to those locations.

Migrants entering the United States through the program will not be placed in detention centers, but could be subject to an alternative form of monitoring, including ankle bracelets.

The United States developed the strategy in close coordination with Mexican authorities, the official said.

Even while Biden moves to end one Trump program, he faces growing pressure from advocates to end another known as Title 42. The pandemic-era order allows U.S. authorities to rapidly expel to Mexico migrants caught crossing the border illegally, a practice advocates say bypasses due process.

The Biden administration has not said whether it will end that program. More than 400,000 migrants have been expelled under the measure since it became effective in March 2020, although many of those caught are repeat border crossers and therefore counted multiple times.

The effort to process MPP enrollees comes as arrests of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have been increasing after a steep drop at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The post Biden to bring in asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico under Trump program first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Biden’s focus on ending the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) – under which 65,000 migrants were sent back to Mexico – fulfills a key election campaign promise, but it leaves thousands of migrants not in the program unsure of their fate, migrants, attorneys, and activists told Reuters.

Some of those migrants not in the program have been waiting along the U.S.-Mexico border longer than those who were enrolled in MPP after they were caught crossing the border illegally. Now, migrants with active MPP cases are eligible to claim asylum in the United States. The exact number of non-MPP asylum seekers along the border is not clear because there is no single record of them, but advocates say there could be thousands.

The president’s focus on MPP is not surprising – it was one of Trump’s most controversial immigration policies, and Biden denounced it on the campaign trail.

Trump said the program aimed to curb the release of thousands of migrants who had entered the United States to claim asylum. But migrant groups said many of those people were forced to live in squalor in Mexico and were vulnerable to violence, including kidnappings and extortion.

In the rush to get rid of the program, attorneys and activists say one unintended effect is that non-MPP asylum seekers who have spent months and even years at the border have been left in limbo. Advocates are now pressing the U.S. government to allow these asylum seekers entry into the United States to make their claims.

The issue highlights the challenges facing the Biden administration as it seeks to reform immigration policies, while also emphasizing that not everyone who comes to the border will be granted asylum.

Republicans and critics have coalesced around the message that Biden has implemented an open-border policy. Biden officials, however, are discouraging migrants from making their way to the United States, stating that the majority of people who arrive will be turned away.

The White House referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which said in a statement that the “system to process individuals with active MPP cases is the first phase of a program to restore safe and orderly processing at the southwest border.”

It declined to elaborate on when or if asylum seekers without active MPP cases would be allowed to claim asylum in the United States.

‘THE LIST’

Angeles, a Nicaraguan mother of two who asked that Reuters use her middle name for her safety, is one of the asylum seekers not in MPP.

She has been waiting with her family in the Mexican city of Tijuana for 15 months after fleeing her country for political persecution.

Afraid of kidnappings, the family rarely goes outside their home and struggles to buy basic necessities like food. Her husband works as a mechanic in exchange for a room for his family. Angeles’ children, aged 15 and 7, are not in school, and her eldest son is sleeping poorly.

Despite her family’s difficult situation, Angeles says she wants to enter the United States legally. In November 2019, she added her family to “La Lista,” – The List – an informal, handwritten book maintained by migrants on the Mexican side of the border. Administrators recorded the names of thousands of migrants and gave them numbers as they waited their turn to make asylum claims to U.S. officials.

She and her family got two numbers – 4,465 and 4,466 – on two scraps of paper. For more than a year, that has been their only clue about when they could enter the country.

La Lista was borne out of another policy embraced by Trump called “metering,” which limited how many migrants could seek asylum each day at U.S. ports of entry. The Strauss Center, a University of Texas research organization, estimates that 9,600 people were on La Lista in Tijuana alone up until it closed in March 2020, though it is not clear how many of those people are still at the border.

But Angeles’ family never got called. After the COVID-19 outbreak, the United States sealed the southern border to the vast majority of asylum seekers. Angeles doesn’t know whether her family’s numbers mean anything anymore.

“I just want an answer, for them to tell me, ‘Look, come present yourself on this day,’ even if they interviewed me and gave me a number and told me to come back,” Angeles said. “But I have nothing.”

“There’s basically almost no access to asylum for people who are not in the MPP program,” said Ginger Cline, a lawyer who represents migrants in Tijuana with Al Otro Lado, an immigration nonprofit group. “It’s an issue because there are now thousands of people who are waiting in dangerous border cities who don’t have access to basic needs.”

BLACK MIGRANTS FACE UNCERTAINTY

Tijuana also has a large population of Haitian migrants as well as migrants who traveled from Africa. They are particularly vulnerable to extortion and racism, migrants and advocates say. They, too, have been left in limbo as MPP was mostly limited to Spanish-speaking asylum seekers.

“The situation is really difficult for those of African descent,” said Katerine Giron, an organizer with Espacio Migrante, a migrant community organization in Tijuana.

The Biden administration “has not done anything for Black immigrants except continuing the cruel and inhumane system that existed before Trump but heightened under Trump,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an activist group that provides humanitarian assistance to migrants along the border and in the United States.

The group estimates there are about 5,000 Black immigrants in Tijuana, and 10,000-15,000 border-wide.

The White House and DHS did not respond to questions about how its approach to unwinding MPP is affecting Black migrants.

In the absence of clarity from the U.S. government, hundreds of asylum seekers have begun camping near the port of entry in Tijuana, hoping to make their asylum claims.

The camp has swelled to about 1,500 people since mid-February, said Alex Mensing, a Tijuana-based immigration advocate with Innovation Law Lab who is part of a coalition that has been trying to help migrants coming to the port of entry.

The expansion of the camp comes as U.S. officials have declared that the swift processing of MPP claimants has allowed Mexico to close the sprawling Matamoros camp on the border that was the most visible symbol of Trump’s crackdown on migration from Central America.

Mensing’s group had counted 241 tents at the port as of Tuesday. Many people camping out do not have active MPP cases but have spent more than a year at the border.

“There’s almost universally this idea that it doesn’t make sense to let some asylum seekers in and not others,” Mensing said. “They do not see that as fair.”

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Border officials encountered 172,000 migrants at the border in March, a 71% increase from February and the latest indicator of the extent of the crisis at the southern border — but one that Biden officials are trying to blame on the Trump administration.

Of the 172,000 migrants encountered, the majority were single adults, and included 18,890 unaccompanied children — a 100% increase from the already high numbers encountered in February, and the highest number recorded. In February, 100,441 migrants overall were encountered.

“CBP has experienced an increase in encounters and arrests. This is not new. Encounters have continued to increase since April 2020, and our past experiences have helped us be better prepared for the challenges we face this year,” Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement. “We are committed to balancing the need to maintain border security, care for those in our custody, and keep the American people and our workforce safe.”

MIGRANT SMUGGLERS USING GROUPS OF CHILDREN TO DIVERT BORDER PATROL FROM ADULTS CROSSING INTO US, AGENTS SAY 

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National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insisted Tuesday that America’s borders “are not open” as the White House moved to try to head off a growing migrant surge that threatens to undermine President Biden’s immigration plans.

In a statement issued in English and Spanish, Mr. Sullivan and Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall tried to tamp down on expectations of a more lenient posture for both illegal immigrants and future legal migrants eager to come.

Their warning came even as they announced they would allow entry of tens of thousands of migrants who have been mired in Mexico, blocked from entering by the Trump team.

“We caution people seeking to immigrate to the United States that our borders are not open and that this is just the first phase in the administration’s work to reopen access to an orderly asylum process,” the advisers said.

Homeland Security is preparing to admit some 25,000 migrants who were blocked from entry under the Migrant Protection Protocols, better known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy. MPP helped solve the last border surge in 2019, sapping the incentive for illegal immigrants to come by making them wait in Mexico while their cases proceeded in U.S. immigration courts, denying them a foothold here.

But the program was criticized by immigrant-rights advocates who said it left some legitimate asylum-seekers vulnerable in Mexico. Bowing to those concerns, the Biden team has said it is scrapping the MPP and will process those people still stuck in the program for entry over the ensuing weeks.

Mr. Sullivan said the new administration’s leniency only applies to people with active MPP cases.

Source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/feb/16/biden-national-security-adviser-our-borders-are-no/

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The orders had been planned for Friday, according to the memo, and people familiar with discussions. But the White House has now pushed back the timeline and it remains unclear when it will take place.

Biden, a Democrat, has vowed to reverse many policies put in place by former Republican President Donald Trump, a process that could take months or years.

ASYLUM AND REGIONAL MIGRATION

Biden plans to undo some of Trump’s asylum restrictions and take actions to address the root causes of migration, a White House official said on Saturday during a United States Conference of Mayors virtual event.

Biden will unwind a Trump program known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), the official, Esther Olavarria, deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council, said in a recording reviewed by Reuters.

The Biden administration said last Wednesday it would end all new enrollments in the MPP program, which has forced more than 65,000 asylum seekers back to Mexico to wait for U.S. immigration court hearings. But it did not give more information on what would happen to the thousands of people currently in Mexico.

In the executive orders, Biden will call to end asylum agreements struck by the Trump administration with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, Olavarria said.

Biden will also restore a program that allows certain children in the three nations to apply for refugee status in the United States from their home countries, according to Olavarria.

The orders will call for the strengthening of asylum protections in Mexico and other countries so that migrants can seek refuge “closer to home,” she said.

Additionally, Biden plans to roll back a Trump rule that sought to block asylum seekers who pass through another country en route to the United States, according to a person briefed on discussions.

REUNITING FAMILIES SEPARATED BY TRUMP

Biden will create a task force to reunite migrant families who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border by Trump’s immigration policies, Olavarria said.

Parties in a lawsuit over the separations have been unable to reach the parents of more than 600 children, according to a court filing this month.

REVIEW OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION SYSTEM

Biden will issue an executive order that would remove barriers to legal immigration and promote citizenship, according to Olavarria.

The Biden administration will begin the process of reversing Trump’s “public charge” rule, which makes it harder for immigrants who are poor or need certain government benefits to secure residency and stay in the country, according to two people familiar with the plans.

Olavarria said on Saturday that Biden would rescind several Trump proclamations. She appeared to reference one that barred certain visa applicants who could not prove they had health coverage and two others that banned the issuance of many work and immigrant visas, which Trump said would protect American jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

CHANGES TO THE REFUGEE PROGRAM

Biden is expected to lay out principles that will guide his administration’s global refugee policy in one of his executive orders.

He has pledged to raise annual refugee intake levels to 125,000, up from the record-low 15,000-person ceiling set by Trump for fiscal year 2021, which began on Oct. 1, 2020.

Biden is not expected to immediately raise the refugee limit. Instead, the Biden administration will follow a formal process that involves consulting with Congress, according to two people familiar with the plan.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-immigration-orders-factbox-idUSKBN29W2FD

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