The Government tries to stop the arrival of migrant families by facilitating their rapid expulsion after crossing the border

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS for its acronym in English) announced this Monday in a statement that "starting today certain families that cannot be removed under Title 42 will be placed in expedited removal proceedings," a "more expedited system. to kick out those families who have no legal reason to be in the United States. "

In its brief statement, DHS does not provide details on how it will apply this new measure or which families it will accept or why they cannot be expelled under Title 42, a rule approved by the Donald Trump administration in spring 2020 to deny the the right to asylum for the majority of immigrants due to the supposed health risk they carry in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

[The Government creates an express judicial channel for migrant families who illegally cross the border since May 28]

"We are sending back the vast majority of incoming families," Biden said at a news conference on March 25.

"We are trying with Mexico to be willing to accept more of these families," added the president, thus admitting that the ability of the United States to immediately expel migrants who cross the border, under Title 42, is limited by the need for Mexico to decide that it accepts them back.

Last March, when Biden made those remarks, figures from the Department of Homeland Security nevertheless showed that only a third of migrant families with children were summarily expelled.

"In the event that Mexico is not able to receive them," a White House spokesman, Vedant Patel, explained then to the Reuters news agency, "these families are placed in immigration proceedings in the United States."

That is, they are allowed to request asylum and, for the most part, they are released in the United States to await the result of a process that can last several years due to the collapse of the immigration courts.

With the decision announced this Monday by the Department of Homeland Security, some of those families (it is not clarified which, how many or why) will not be admitted into the immigration system but placed directly in a rapid removal procedure.

This system allows immigrants to undergo the credible fear test (to demonstrate that they can apply for asylum in the United States by meeting the requirements of suffering persecution in their countries of origin) before an immigration officer, but if he considers that they have not passed it, they are deportees without the right to appear before a judge.

A Texas Public Safety officer watches as a group of undocumented immigrants cross the Rio Grande River in Del Rio, Texas, on Wednesday, June 16. Eric Gay / AP

The United States faces this fiscal year the largest increase in the arrival of immigrants at the border with Mexico in 20 years, according to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, in March. 

The measure announced this Monday comes two months after DHS created an exclusive avenue to process "faster" in the judicial courts the asylum cases of families that are intercepted at the border.

Mayorkas and the attorney general, Merrick Garland, promised to treat immigrants "fairly" despite the fact that they were speeding up the process by which they are granted or, predictably in most cases, denied asylum.

The Government expects the judges to issue their decision within a maximum period of 300 days from the start of the proceedings.

During that period, immigrants will remain in the United States pending a final resolution.