Biden to restore ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy

JOE BIDEN will start turning asylum seekers back to Mexico as soon as next week under a reinstated Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” programme, but will offer them a coronavirus vaccine on the way out, it has been reported.

The US president vowed to undo some of the hardline immigration policies of his predecessor, and earlier this year ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) scheme, where asylum seekers must remain in Mexico before their US immigration hearings.

However, a federal judge ordered the government to restart it, saying the administration had failed to follow proper regulatory procedure.

A record 1.7million migrants have been detained along the US border in the past 12 months – the highest number ever recorded. One million have been expelled under a Covid-related order but there are still more than 150,000 detentions each month.

Vaccines will be offered to anyone who is enrolled in the “Remain in Mexico” programme, Axios reported, though it is not clear when this would happen. “In compliance with the court order, we are working to re-implement MPP as promptly as possible,” homeland security spokesperson Marsha

Espinosa told Axios. “We cannot do so until we have the independent agreement from the government of Mexico to accept those we seek to enrol in MPP.

“We will communicate to the court, and to the public, the timing of reimplementation when we are prepared to do so,” she added.

Immigration advocates argue that the MPP programme exposes migrants to violence and kidnappings in dangerous border cities, where people camped out for months or years waiting for their US migration hearings.

However, Mexican officials have told Reuters that a deal has not yet been finalised.