Fear of an influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border. Before lifting a health measure that had locked access to the country since the start of the pandemic, the United States deployed more than 24,000 agents on Wednesday and adopted new restrictions on the right to asylum. Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged that “the coming days and weeks” may be “very difficult”. He said the authorities were already seeing “a high number of arrivals in some areas”.
The day before, Democratic President Joe Biden had gone so far as to admit that the situation would be “chaotic” when the so-called “Title 42” device expired on Thursday at 11:59 p.m. Washington time. This rule, supposed to limit the spread of Covid-19, gave the American authorities the possibility of immediately turning back all migrants entering the country, including asylum seekers. In three years, it has been used 2.8 million times.
Nearly 24,000 additional agents
As its lifting approached, border towns such as Brownsville, Laredo and El Paso saw the arrival of many candidates for exile, mainly from Latin America but also from China, Russia or Turkey. In El Paso, hundreds of people are sleeping on the streets. Mayor Oscar Leeser expects a wave of “12,000 to 15,000 people” at the end of the week.
To help local authorities, the government announced on Wednesday the deployment of “more than 24,000 agents and law enforcement officers, as well as more than 1,100 coordinators” from the border police. This is without counting the 1,500 soldiers dispatched by the Ministry of Defense, in reinforcement of the 2,500 already on the spot.
New Restrictions
At the same time, the Ministries of Justice and Homeland Security have finalized new restrictions on the right to asylum. Announced in February, they have been the subject of a mandatory consultation procedure and will come into force on Thursday evening. Before presenting themselves at the border, asylum seekers, with the exception of unaccompanied minors, must now have obtained an appointment on a telephone application set up by the border guards, or have been refused access. asylum in one of the countries crossed during their migratory journey. Otherwise, their request will be presumed illegitimate and they may be subject to an accelerated deportation procedure, prohibiting them from entering American soil for five years.
The United States plans to increase repatriation flights, which will double or triple for certain destinations. Some 7,000 additional places will be created in detention centers so that migrants do not disappear in the country while awaiting the examination of their file. To encourage legal channels of immigration, Washington has planned to eventually open a hundred “regional management centers”, located outside the country, and where the files of candidates for emigration will be studied. The first are planned in Colombia and Guatemala.