A new Mexican law has brought about a substantial change at the border: US authorities can no longer send immigrants back to the neighboring country.
The government of Donald Trump began to reject asylum seekers at the border in March last year thanks to an emergency order due to the coronavirus pandemic: with the argument of avoiding contagions
, the entry
of immigrants
was sealed in practice
, which they began to be sent back to Mexico.
However, the Mexican government approved in November a reform of its immigration law that
prohibits the detention of migrant children and families
, for which it has stopped accepting the shipment of these immigrants by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP, for its acronym in English), officials of the Administration chaired by Joe Biden told The New York Times and The Washington Post.
More and more people are crossing the border illegally,
spilling over
into
US detention centers
in some cities.
Stephanie Malin, a CBP spokeswoman, said that due to pandemic precautions and social distancing guidelines, some facilities have reached their "safe detention capacity."
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The Border Patrol made more than
73,000 arrests in December
, about double the more than 40,000 registered in July.
Daily arrests have also risen in the past week, according to US officials, a trend driven by family groups and children.
In some areas of the border, agents cannot send these immigrants back to Mexico nor do they have space to detain them.
They then have one option left: to release them pending the resolution of their asylum application process.
The impact on the border: only in some cities
National security officials say Trump's pandemic emergency order was necessary to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in detention centers, even though it has prevented vulnerable families from submitting asylum claims.
Since it was issued in March, US authorities
have expelled more than 390,000 migrants
to Mexico or their countries of origin.
The rule reduced the number of detained immigrants by allowing officers to circumvent regular refugee claim procedures and expedite deportations.
They managed to expel 90% of those who crossed the border illegally.
[The situation of thousands of migrants on the Mexican border worsens daily]
The new Mexican standard changes this situation.
"
Mexico now only accepts single adults, not families or children
," a US official explained to The Washington Post.
The measure, which took effect in January, does not impact the entire border in the same way.
In the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, the busiest stretch of the border for illegal crossings, adults arriving with children are now taken to the Border Patrol station in McAllen to be searched and then, they are usually released, immigration officials said.
A Border Patrol agent detains a group of immigrants who allegedly entered the country illegally near McAllen, Texas, at one of the busiest border crossings (Archive).
AP
The Biden Administration
can
no
longer send these immigrants
to the Mexican city across the border, Reynosa.
In recent years, Central American families have chosen that route to enter the United States, fleeing the persecution, violence and poverty of their countries of origin.
But in other places like Nogales, Arizona,
US agents continue to evict adults and also entire families,
who are left on the streets of Mexico instead of shelters.
It is also unclear how the rule affects other areas of the border.
The Mexican authorities have not commented on the change, nor have they provided specifications.
The change presents a challenge for the new Administration.
One of the main concerns is that the large-scale liberation of parents and children will
trigger a wave of immigration
, as has happened on other occasions.
Cities on the border also fear
an increase in infections
, as migrants are often released without being tested for coronavirus.
"We can handle a sudden increase [in families], we can handle the arrival of immigrants, but the difference now is obviously COVID / 19," said Roel Rodríguez, city manager for the Texas city of McAllen.
How families continue to be expelled
Biden has vowed to restore asylum claims at the southern border and signed a series of executive orders this week ordering the Administration to review Trump's restrictive policies, such as the Stay in Mexico program.
However, the new Administration has not publicly detailed
when the emergency rule would be lifted due to the pandemic
that Trump established and that in practice continues to expel migrant families.
A federal judge lifted a block on the rule, preventing the United States from turning away unaccompanied migrant children.
The White House has said it will stop expelling minors, allowing them to go to US shelters.
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Biden has also told migrants who are considering travel that "this is not the time to come to the United States."
Last week, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki indicated that
it takes time
"to get an immigration process in place so that people can be treated humanely."
Mexico's migration policies
For its part, Mexico has celebrated some of Biden's first actions in favor of migrants, promising to collaborate but without clarifying how it will do it or what assistance it will give.
Despite several express questions from Noticias Telemundo, the Mexican government did not elaborate or specify what will be done from the Mexican side or details of this possible cooperation program to address the causes of migration due to poverty and violence.
The country's decision to ban the detention of minors has been
well received
by human rights defenders.
[Mexico never paid for the border wall. But what about the rest of Trump's promises?]
"Mexico is taking a decisive step to end the detention of children for immigration reasons and this development is promising and encouraging," said Gillian Triggs, Deputy High Commissioner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
With information from The New York Times and The Washington Post.