Admission to Texas border points, including Matamoros, will be expanded next week and up to 300 migrants are expected daily.
Border bridge between Mexico and the United States. (Reference image: Human Rights Watch).
The United States will begin to receive asylum seekers waiting in Mexico as of this Friday, who will already be able to present their applications at the border points.
The administration of President Joe Biden hopes to reverse the policy established by his predecessor Donald Trump, known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which obliges migrants to remain in Mexico during their legal entry process into the country.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic halted the activity of immigration offices and courts for months, but migrants continued to arrive at the border, so now about 70,000 people are waiting to be received to present their cases.
According to the report of Radio Television Martí, of that total, the US government estimates that only about 25,000 have active immigration court cases pending before the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Although as of February 19, applicants will be allowed to enter the country, the government clarified that this does not mean that the border is open and that only those who were returned to Mexico by the MPP will be able to enter.
He also clarified that he will receive around 30 people per day, but that at some point he expects up to 300 people.
For this, work must be done on the detection of COVID-19, to control that those who enter the US present negative PCR tests, otherwise they will be denied access.
The White House border affairs officer, Roberta Jacobson, told La Voz de América that the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) will be in charge of identifying and “selecting” asylum seekers, “starting with identifying the most vulnerable people or those who have spent more time in the MPP program ”.
The process begins today at the San Ysidro, California, port of entry and will expand next week to two other ports of entry in Texas, including one near a migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, according to a spokeswoman for the Department of National security.
The process will be done through a virtual registration and that once registered, eligible persons will receive additional information on where and when to present themselves and it will be emphasized that they should not approach the border until they are instructed to do so.