U.S. announces it will resume policy for asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico
SAN DIEGO» Migrants seeking to enter the United States again will have to stay in Mexico as they await immigration hearings, as the Biden administration reluctantly announced plans Thursday to reinstate the Trump-era policy and agreed to Mexico’s conditions for resuming it.
Revival of the “Remain in Mexico” policy comes even as the Biden administration maneuvers to end it in a way that survives legal scrutiny. President Joe Biden scrapped the policy, but a lawsuit by Texas and Missouri forced him to put it back into effect, subject to Mexico’s acceptance.
Mexico’s foreign relations secretary said in light of U.S. concessions Mexico will allow returns, expected to begin next week, “for humanitarian reasons and for temporary stays.”
Mexico’s conditions include COVID-19 vaccinawere tions for migrants, more protection in dangerous Mexican border cities, better access to attorneys and quicker resolution of cases.
About 70,000 asylumseekers have been subject to the policy, which President Donald Trump intro
duced in January 2019 and which Biden suspended on his first day in office.
Illegal border crossings fell sharply after Mexico, facing Trump’s threat of higher tariffs, acquiesced in 2019 to the policy’s rapid expansion. Asylum-seekers victims of major violence while waiting in Mexico and faced a slew of legal obstacles, such as access to attorneys and case information.
Migrants are expected to be returned starting Monday in one border city, which has not been identified.
It eventually will be done in seven locations: San Diego and Calexico in California; Nogales, Ariz.; and the Texas border cities of Brownsville, Eagle Pass, El Paso and Laredo.
The Homeland Security Department said Thursday it was acting to comply with a court order but that Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas believes the policy “has endemic flaws, imposed unjustifiable human costs, pulled resources and personnel away from other priority efforts, and failed to address the root causes of irregular migration.”
“Deeply flawed,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday when describing the policy. “We’re working to implement under the court order,” she said.
The dual announcements follow intense discussions between the U.S. and Mexico after U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee in Amarillo, Texas, ordered the policy be reinstated, subject to Mexico’s participation.
The policy’s new iteration, outlined in a briefing for reporters and a court filing Thursday, promises major additions and changes that Mexico demanded.
All migrants subject to the policy will be vaccinated against COVID-19. Adults will get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only one shot. Children who are eligible under U.S. guidelines will get the Pfizer shot, with second shots when they come to the U.S. for their first hearings.
The U.S. will try to complete cases within 180 days.