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The Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, explained this Friday in an interview with Noticias Telemundo that the return of migrants sent to the other side of the border within the program Stay in Mexico will also benefit the who have gone to their home countries, as long as continue to have an open asylum case in the United States.
Thousands of people have been sent by the previous Administration, chaired by Donald Trump, to wait on the other side of the border, sometimes in dangerous areas of Mexico and at the mercy of organized crime, until your asylum application is resolved. The government manages the figure of 25, 000 affected, but could be up to 70, 000 according to the TRAC center of Syracuse University.
The government of Joe Biden announced this Friday that, as of next February 19, an Internet registration system will be launched so that Those who have an open case can still be transported from Mexico to three ports of entry and allowed to wait in the United States until the resolution of their application in an immigration court.
The order of priority will be assigned by humanitarian organizations in collaboration with the US Government, also taking into account their situation. Before being admitted to the country they will be subjected to a coronavirus test to make sure they are not infected. Once they arrive, “most” will not be sent to detention centers because “they are not a risk to Americans.”
“It takes time to rebuild our system of asylum, “Mayorkas indicated, because” it was completely dismantled by Trump. ” “People should not rush to the border because that would only endanger the system for a safe and efficient return,” he insisted, and “would compromise their own security.”
“If people rush to the border and arrive at this time, we do not have the capacity to serve them,” he added, “we are rebuilding a secure system, and that takes time, they would put themselves in danger and compromise our efforts ”. “They will not achieve what they seek, but if they give us time there is hope”, said.
Immigrants who are already at the border but have not yet applied for asylum and are not included in the program Stay in Mexico will have to wait because the veto launched a year ago by Trump with the excuse of the coronavirus pandemic remains in force.
Mayorkas has promised that he will not separate families at the border , as Trump did with the policy known as zero tolerance. Currently, immigration authorities are admitting families and minors to Texas because Mexico refuses to accept them back, although this policy does not affect other border areas, or adults who arrive alone.
Regarding minors who have not yet been reunited with their parents after the end of the zero tolerance policy, Mayorkas has committed to finding “separated individuals wherever they may be, and be it within the United States, in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador or some other country ”. “We cannot erase the damage caused, the trauma suffered, but we can try to do things well from now on,” he indicated, “we are going to reunify these families, we are going to find them.”
“Deportations have resumed,” Mayorkas finally admitted about the court order that temporarily annulled Biden’s decision to freeze deportations for 100 days, “we have an obligation to comply with the court’s decision.” “We are doing our best within the confines of the law,” he said.
In the long term, Mayorkas promised to work with the immigrants’ countries of departure to build a refugee system that allows people to be accepted in an orderly manner without having to travel to the “dangerous” border and request asylum there.
