By Julia Ainsley for NBC News
WASHINGTON - As thousands of Honduran migrants head to the U.S. border, the incoming Biden Administration, just days after taking office, has a message: Don't come now.
President-elect Joe Biden has promised an end to the Trump Administration's strict immigration policies, which focused on
building a border wall and restricting eligibility for asylum
.
But those promises can be put to the test in the early days of the new government.
If potential migrants from Central America sense that now is the time to travel to the United States,
the southern border could quickly be overwhelmed
before systems are put in place to handle the influx.
[Migrant caravan moves towards Guatemala: "we have faith in God that [Biden] is going to open doors for us"]
A senior official on Biden's transition team said the perception that the Administration will be able to allow all arriving asylum seekers to enter the United States to apply on the first day is false.
"The situation at the border will not transform overnight
," the transition official told our sister network NBC News in an exclusive interview.
But the official declined to say when asylum seekers could come to the United States
and whether they will be detained while they await a court hearing
.
Honduran migrants injured after a clash with Guatemalan police and military mourn on the side of the highway on January 17, 2020.
An estimated
9,000 Honduran migrants are fleeing
food-scarce regions devastated by two hurricanes, drought and economic hardship.
On Friday night, some 2,000 members of the caravan passed by Guatemalan authorities and entered Guatemala without showing documentation or negative evidence of COVID-19,
The Associated Press
news agency reported
.
The caravan may reach the US border in the next few weeks.
While some people were motivated by the promise of an easier path to the United States, in the past there have been
increases in immigration around the American elections and power transitions
.
There was an increase in migration in late 2016 and early 2017, just before Trump took office, and caravans from Central America arrived in Southern California in 2018, around the midterm elections.
Trump's adviser Stephen Miller, the administration's immigration hawk, told reporters shortly before the 2020 election that Biden's immigration policies would result in "open borders" and end the "sovereignty" of the United States. .
The second migrant caravan of 2021 enters Guatemala
Jan. 16, 202 102: 02
Before the recent caravan, there were already tens of thousands of migrants who had been detained at the United States border by the Trump Administration and told to wait in Mexico until their court dates to present their asylum cases.
Many have given up and returned to the south, but
thousands remain in poor condition in northern Mexico
waiting to enter the United States.
[Members of the migrant caravan clash with the police on the border with Guatemala]
The senior official on Biden's transition team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
those who have been waiting at the border, along with other vulnerable populations, will be a priority for processing and entry
, rather than those who have recently arrived.
The official said that migrants trying to cross into the United States to request asylum in the first weeks of the new administration
"must understand that they will not be able to enter the United States immediately
.
"
The official also stressed that any immigration legislation proposed by the Biden Administration will be for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States, not for those who are considering arriving now.
The Biden Administration wants to end the Trump Administration practice that required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, known as the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP), but will not allow all migrants to enter the country at the same time and as long as possible. soon as Biden takes office, the official said.
"There is help on the way, but now is not the time to make the trip
," the official said.
"[Biden] is not going to wait for Congress, he is going to deliver the immigration reform plan": Xavier Becerra
Jan. 15, 202102: 34
The incoming Administration has also pledged to roll back Trump-imposed asylum restrictions that have dramatically reduced the number of people eligible for humanitarian protection.
Over time, the official said, the Biden Administration plans to establish a way to safely process migrants at the border and allow asylum seekers to submit their applications.
[Mexico deploys a strong operation on the southern border to prevent the passage of the migrant caravan]
The transition official declined to elaborate on what migrants traveling in the Honduran caravan will find when they arrive at the U.S. border under the Biden Administration, in part because they
expect to receive more information about the migrant processing capabilities
of United States after the Democrat takes the oath on Wednesday.
But the official said that the people in the caravan "will not find when they reach the US border, that from Tuesday to Wednesday things have changed overnight and the ports are open and they can enter the United States." .
At the same time, COVID-19 rates are increasing in the United States and around the world.
The official said the pandemic, plus the time it will take for the Biden Administration to restart processing of migrants and asylum seekers at the southern border, makes now
an especially difficult time to travel
.
[Three alleged human traffickers who tried to join the migrant caravan were arrested in El Salvador]
"We have to send a message that health and hope are on the way, but coming right now makes no sense for their own safety ... while we put processes in place that they can access in the future," the official said.