Asylum seekers waiting in Mexico rattled by delays to US entry

02/23/2021

Source: Al Jazeera

The United States has abruptly cancelled plans to bring asylum seekers into Texas at two ports of entry, dashing the hopes of hundreds who have been waiting for months in Mexico under a Trump-era policy President Joe Biden promised to unwind.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Monday that “given current operational considerations”, it could no longer say when it would begin bringing in migrants through ports in Brownsville and El Paso, Texas.

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U.S. to admit asylum seekers from hard-hit camp at Texas border

02/24/2021

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States this week will begin processing people held in the Matamoros migrant camp at the Texas border for entry into the country after the area was hit hard by severe weather, the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday.

The camp, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, is home to about 1,000 migrants, most from Central America, hoping to be granted refuge across the border. They have endured sub-zero temperatures over the last week while living in flimsy tents.

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US unwinds Trump policy making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico

02/19/2021

Source: PBS

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Biden administration moved to restore the asylum system to the way it worked for decades Friday by releasing a group of asylum-seekers into the United States, ending their long wait in Mexico and unraveling one of former President Donald Trump’s signature immigration policies.

The 25 people who arrived are the first of an estimated 25,000 asylum-seekers with active cases in the “Remain in Mexico” program who will now wait in the U.S. for their court hearings instead of south of the border. Wary of a surge of migrants, American officials are warning people not to come to the border and to register on a website that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees launched Friday.

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US lets in asylum-seekers stuck in Mexico, ends Trump policy

02/19/2021

Source: The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — After waiting months and sometimes years in Mexico, people seeking asylum in the United States are being allowed into the country starting Friday as they wait for courts to decide on their cases, unwinding one of the Trump administration’s signature immigration policies that President Joe Biden vowed to end.

The number of asylum-seekers coming in initially will be very limited, beginning Friday at a border crossing in San Diego and expanding to Brownsville, Texas, on Monday and El Paso, Texas, next Friday. U.S. officials are warning people not to come to the U.S.-Mexico border, saying an estimated 25,000 people with active cases in the “Remain in Mexico” program and several hundred who are appealing decisions should register on a website that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is launching early next week.

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Migrants on the move again in Mexico and Central America

02/18/2021

Source: AP

TENOSIQUE, Mexico (AP) — In the first Mexican shelter reached by migrants after trekking through the Guatemalan jungle, some 150 migrants are sleeping in its dormitories and another 150 lie on thin mattresses spread across the floor of its chapel.

Only six weeks into the year, the shelter known as “The 72” has hosted nearly 1,500 migrants, compared to 3,000 all of last year. It has halved its dormitory space due to the pandemic. That wasn’t a problem last year because few migrants arrived, but this year it’s been overwhelmed.

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Biden, Hill Democrats plan to unveil immigration reform bill this week

02/15/2021

Source: NBC News

The Biden administration and Hill Democrats are expected later this week to release an immigration reform bill, multiple sources familiar with the planning tell NBC News.

The legislative text of the “U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021” will reflect the immigration priorities that President Joe Biden unveiled on his first day in office. His proposal includes an earned pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, expands the refugee resettlement program and deploys more technology to the Southern border. There are additional protections that are being considered in the legislation, such as asylum processing in home countries for minors, expanded benefits for DREAMers and ending the public charge rule.

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Biden eyes plan to replace Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy

02/11/2021

Source: The Hill

President Biden is weighing a plan that would allow migrants waiting at the Mexican border to enter the U.S. to apply for asylum, a first step to ending former President Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy.

Trump’s policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), forced migrants attempting to cross the southern border to apply for asylum in Mexico regardless of their country of origin, swelling the number of people camped at the border.

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Biden Team Unveils New Asylum System To Replace Trump’s ‘Remain In Mexico’

02/12/21

Source: NPR

The Biden administration said it will begin phasing in a new asylum process on Feb. 19 to deal with a backlog of migrants seeking asylum on the southern U.S. border, many of whom have been waiting in squalid camps in a state of limbo for court dates because of the Migrant Protection Protocols program.

Under pressure to make good on campaign promises on immigration and facing the prospect that a new wave of migrants seeking to escape desperate situations could flood the border, the Biden team said it plans to start allowing in a trickle of asylum-seekers — about 300 people per day — from among an estimated 25,000 people with “active cases” in the now-defunct MPP program.

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Asylum seekers stuck in Mexico are frustrated, angry over Biden administration’s release of some migrants into U.S.

02/12/2021

Source: The Washington Post

MATAMOROS, Mexico — Cuban asylum seeker Yuleydis Caballero has been living in a migrant tenement in this border town for nearly 18 months, waiting for her day in a U.S. immigration court under the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy. So when she learned that families that recently crossed the border illegally have been released in the United States under the new Biden administration, Caballero’s anger boiled over.

“They tell us to be patient, be patient, be patient. But from where do they want us to draw patience? We have nothing left,” Caballero said. “We don’t understand why Trump was able to change policy one day to the next, but a new president can’t change our situation one day to the next.”

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Mexico president warns against false claims of open US doors

02/11/2021

Source: Yahoo News

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday many migrants believe the “doors are open” to the United States following the election of President Joe Biden.

López Obrador said that wasn’t true, and urged migrants not to believe traffickers who tell them they could get legal status immediately. He noted that he welcomed Biden’s policy proposal, but that it would take time to be approved and implemented.