Given the record arrival of migrants to the southern border (in the last 12 months the number of two million has been exceeded for the first time), especially from countries such as Venezuela or Cuba, which do not admit them back if they are deported, the Government chaired by Joe Biden launched a new system in the spring to resolve asylum applications faster, with the aim of also relieving immigration courts, where more than a million unresolved files have been piling up for years.
The White House allowed Department of Homeland Security asylum officers to decide who can stay in the country and defend their case and who was returned, conducting an interview between 21 and 45 days after processing their application, instead of the months or years that the overloaded immigration courts take (depending on the Department of Justice).
Between two and five weeks after the interview, the immigrants would learn of the officers' decision, according to the White House.
Unaccompanied migrant girls are seen left as they are searched alongside other asylum-seeking migrants who crossed the Rio Grande into the United States from Mexico in Roma, Texas, on May 14, 2022. ADREES LATIF / REUTERS
Since May, only 99 people have completed this new procedure, according to The New York Times;
of them, 24 obtained asylum, and the rest were rejected, which does not mean that they were deported, since their case can be appealed before the immigration courts.
Expanding this system, however, will require the hiring of hundreds of officers, according to government sources told the aforementioned newspaper.
So far the government has oriented 140 asylum officers for the new interviews, and plans to reach 800, with another 1,200 in support, which would allow some 150,000 interviews per year.
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"We are building the foundations of a new system to process asylum applications," said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Activists consulted by the newspaper, however, doubt the speed of the new process, since migrants need to get legal help to defend their cases, but they consider that, if done well, "it could change everything," in the words of Elanor Acer, director of the Human Rights First refugee protection program.
Global Migration Summit at the White House
The White House is also trying to strengthen collaboration with other countries, where most migrants come from, to put a stop to the exodus.
Thus, government officials met with representatives of 19 American nations at the White House on Monday, according to the CNN news network, to fine-tune the agreements reached during the Summit of the Americas in June.
Among the signatory countries of the Declaration of Los Angeles (the Californian city that hosted the summit) are Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Peru.
Panama reports that more than 134,000 people have crossed the dangerous Darién jungle
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The objective of the meeting, in which National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan participated, was to advance the application of the agreement, according to CNN.
"We agreed on a set of action plans focused on specific priorities such as labor mobility, refugee resettlement, return and reintegration, collaboration with financial institutions, temporary protection status and regularization," an official source told the aforementioned chain.
During the meeting, the progress of Canada was highlighted, which announced efforts to support the countries that host displaced persons and also support them in their territory.
Guatemala also stood out for dismantling a human trafficking network.
“There is consensus that there is value in us working more closely together and trying to sync up our policies,” the White House official added.