April 28 (UPI) — The Biden administration has unveiled a series of measures to curb an expected surge in immigrant arrivals at the U. S. southern border. of two weeks.
Instituted in March 2020 through the Trump administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Title 42 has been used since last month to temporarily deport more than 2. 8 million migrants and asylum seekers, according to data from U. S. Customs and Border Protection. U. S.
“We expect encounters to pile up at our southern border as smugglers look to take credit for this update and are already striving to spread incorrect information that the border will be open after this,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayankas said. Press conference.
However, he added that they had been “preparing for this transition for more than a year and a half. “
“The return to migrant processing under Title 8 rule will be swift and immediate,” he said.
“Let’s be clear: our border is open and will be open after May 11. “
“The United States will use regional processing centers to expedite the screening of Americans seeking legal pathways to the United States,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters in a substantive appeal about Thursday’s announcement.
The cinputs will screen immigrants and other eligible individuals will be directed to refugee resettlement or other legal pathways, adding parole programs, to enter the United States, while offering data on “local options,” the official said, adding that Canada and Spain also have expressed interest in accepting referrals from processing centers.
Mayorkas described the centers at the press conference as an attempt to exclude smugglers from the immigration process, which he said is because they have witnessed an increase in smuggling organizations over the past decade.
“The total style is to succeed in other people where they are, eliminate the smugglers and save them from the dangerous adventure that many of them don’t do,” he said.
To work with this mission, Panama, Colombia and the United States began a 60-day law enforcement crusade on April 20 to disrupt netpaint smuggling.
Among the pathways created Thursday are a new parole procedure for the reunification of the circle of relatives for El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia, as well as doubling the number of refugees who will be accepted into the United States from countries in the Western Hemisphere.
“We are building legal pathways for other people to come to the U. S. “We don’t have to go to the U. S. without resorting to smugglers,” Mayorkas said. At the same time, we are imposing consequences on those who do not use those routes and migrate irregularly to our southern border. . “
The announcement comes as the Biden administration has been sued by Republican critics over immigrants entering the country through the southern border. It has also been criticized by immigration and human rights advocates for efforts to keep Title 42 in place, with its expiration ordered through the court.
It also comes after the White House last February proposed a new immigration rule that will make any migrant who tries to enter the United States irregularly inadmissible.
Human Rights First said Thursday it welcomed the Biden administration’s plans to expand resettlement and family reunification circle and asked it to abandon the planned rule it called an asylum ban.
“This initiative provides temporary protection to refugees and is not used to decrease the resettlement of refugees from other areas. The Biden administration is concentrating on measures such as expanding refugee resettlement and normal channels and abandoning its plan to impose an asylum ban that would be a legal one. , ethical and political error. “