In a new effort to reduce irregular immigration, the government of President Joe Biden is getting ready to implement immigrant processing centers in several Latin American countries.
This would make it possible to seek legal options for people seeking some type of protection and prevent them from reaching Mexico, a country that has faced the greatest migratory pressure since 2018 and where only in fiscal year 2022 two million foreigners were detained.
Title 42 ends on May 11, after the Biden Administration formally announced the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This health program, implemented by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) during the Donald Trump government, was used for the expedited expulsion of immigrants, but without the right to request asylum, which generated criticism from civil organizations.
The new Biden Administration plan will have some offices in Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, according to a Politico report.
For a year now, senior US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, have been negotiating various immigration programs with those countries, in addition to increasing aid to governments for processing immigrants.
The processing program could also be implemented in Costa Rica, but it is not clear if it is also in Panama, another of the countries facing high migratory pressure, mainly from Venezuela.
In addition to this, the Biden Administration will launch an accelerated care program for asylum seekers on the border with Mexico, where officials from the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will conduct interviews and make decisions in a maximum of 72 hours.
Border Patrol and USCIS agents will work together to determine if an immigrant presents a credible case for asylum.
Recent court decisions have forced the Biden Administration to release immigrants seeking asylum, but there is no clarity on how these orders will be handled.
However, the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) implemented a pilot plan to place bracelets on immigrants who have open processes, which could serve as an additional alternative to detention.
The Biden Administration recognizes that at the end of Title 42 there could be a greater arrival of immigrants on the border with Mexico, where people from Latin America arrive, but also from Africa and Asia.
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