The Joe Biden government will allow the gradual entry into the United States of thousands of migrants who have requested asylum and who are waiting in Mexico for a response.
Starting next week, some 25,000 people who already have active cases will be able to be accepted.
Applicants will first need to register and pass a covid-19 test, before they can enter through one of three border crossings.
This new measure reverses the policies of former President Donald Trump, who in 2019 promulgated the Protocols for the Protection of Migrants, also called “Remain in Mexico” (stay in Mexico), which made asylum seekers have to wait in a “third country insurance “to have your case resolved.
In the case of migrants from Central America, they were required to wait in Mexico while their cases were processed by US immigration courts.
But on his first day in office, Biden suspended that policy.
“As President Biden has made clear, the United States government is committed to rebuilding a safe, orderly and humane immigration system,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday.
“This latest action is another step in our commitment to reform immigration policies that do not align with our nation’s values,” he added.
Only those who already have a case
The Biden administration plans to begin admitting asylum seekers at three crossings: San Ysidro , in California, and El Paso and Brownsville , in Texas.
The migrants will be admitted and will be free while they are summoned to appear in court in nearby cities or where they have family members who take them in.
But Mayorkas stressed that “people who are not eligible in this initial phase should wait for further instructions and not travel to the border.”
This is because it is feared that many people will try to cross the border illegally due to Biden’s new immigration policy.
This Friday’s announcement was welcomed at a sprawling migrant camp in the Mexican city of Matamoros, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas.
“I really have no words to express how I feel right now!” A Salvadoran woman, Sandra Andrade, who has been waiting in Mexico for more than a year, told Reuters.
Border cities where migrants have waited for months are experiencing increased crime rates.
Last year Human Rights First said that “the families, children and adults who were returned to Mexico are being sent into great danger.”
“Many have suffered kidnappings, attacks, sexual assaults, threats and other incredible cruelties,” said the humanitarian organization.