With this measure, the United States seeks to help migrants gain access to regular migration channels in its territory and in other countries in a “safe, orderly and humane” manner.
Spain, Canada and the U.S. will accept migrants whose cases will be processed through legal channels through processing centers in Latin American countries, such as Colombia and Guatemala, the U.S. government announced Thursday.
The announcement is part of a series of US measures to try to reduce the flow of migrants to its border with Mexico as of May 11, when Title 42, an immigration regulation that allows hot deportations, is suspended.
In a statement, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security stressed that these measures will be implemented “in close coordination with regional partners, including the governments of Mexico, Canada, Spain, Colombia and Guatemala”.
Specifically, the US, Spain and Canada will receive migrants who will be sent from processing centers that the US will create in countries in the region such as Colombia and Guatemala to manage the applications of people wishing to migrate.
At these centers, people will be able to access some legal avenues for migration such as obtaining refugee status, family reunification programs and work permits in the US.
Those facilities will be administered in conjunction with “international organizations” and there, screened migrants will be eligible for refugee programs and humanitarian family or work permits in the United States, U.S. government officials said Thursday in a call with reporters.
In parallel, Canada and Spain agreed to receive migrants referred from these centers.
With this new measure, said a high-ranking official, the U.S. seeks to help migrants access regular migration channels in its territory and in other countries in a “safe, orderly and humane” manner.
“The U.S. is making legal migration channels more accessible from South and Central America as an alternative to prevent people from taking paths that are sometimes dangerous,” the official stressed.
This announcement is part of the measures adopted by the U.S. in view of the lifting of Title 42 on May 11. That rule has allowed more than 2.5 million migrant removals since it went into effect in 2020 under the pretext of the pandemic during the term of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021).
In a hearing before a congressional committee last week, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Director Troy Miller Miller noted that the number of irregular border crossings is expected to increase to 10,000 a day once the rule is suspended.