The US prepares for an increase in immigrant crossings before the end of border restrictions

The President’s Government Joe Biden designs a strategy for the possible arrival of tens of thousands more immigrants at the border between the United States and Mexico following the end of COVID-19 restrictions next month, scrambling to find potential holding centers, speed up deportations and increase processing of refugees abroad.

The government is expected to announce a package of new measures later this week that would include an increase in the number of Latin Americans admitted through the United States’ refugee settlement program, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

At the same time, the US authorities are expanding the reception capacity of immigrants at the border, at the same time that they are testing the acceleration of asylum controls. Two US officials and a third person familiar with the matter told Reuters that one of the options being considered, as yet undisclosed, is to process the migrants at Fort Bliss, a military base near El Paso, Texas.

White House spokesman abdullah hasan He denied the base was being considered and the Pentagon said it had not received a request to use it for migrant processing.

Other measures are likely to include deals or understandings with regional governments aimed at curbing northward migration and increasing aid to migrants who have already arrived in those countries, according to the person familiar with the matter. Details were not immediately known.

He Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of State of the United States did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Biden’s plans are intended to deal with a likely increase in unauthorized immigration after the end of COVID-19 border restrictions, which have been in place since 2020, on May 11 barring legal or congressional intervention. last minute.

The broader COVID public health emergency will end on that date, undermining the justification for the restrictions, known as Title 42.

Few refugee admissions

Biden, a Democrat who announced his 2024 re-election campaign this week, has faced record numbers of migrants caught crossing the US-Mexico border and has gradually toughened his approach to law enforcement.

Republicans have blamed Biden for abandoning the hardline policies championed by former Republican President Donald Trump, currently the opposition party’s leading contender for the presidential nomination.

The expansion of refugee processing in Latin America would come at a time when the Biden administration has yet to restore refugee admissions after they were slashed under Trump.

Biden reserved 15,000 places for refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean in fiscal year 2022, which ended on September 30, 2022, but admitted only about 2,500.

The government picked up the pace during the first six months of the current fiscal year, letting in 2,300 people from the region, but it remains far from the cap of 15,000 people.

The Biden administration’s latest border plan focuses on a soon-to-be-approved rule that will prevent most immigrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum if they pass through another country without seeking refuge or using legal routes of entry. To united states.

For the rule to work as an effective deterrent, US authorities should detain people who cross the border and quickly process them for deportation.

Troy Miller, acting commissioner for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), told lawmakers last week that he is preparing for the possibility of as many as 10,000 immigrants a day attempting to enter the United States illegally, nearly twice as many. of the daily average for March.

Miller noted that there are currently an estimated 660,000 migrants in Mexico, citing United Nations figures.

CBP has the capacity to detain 6,000 migrants at the US-Mexico border and plans to add space for 2,500 more, Miller said, adding that the agency has increased its capacity to quickly transport migrants away from the border.

When crossings hit record highs in 2022, US authorities released thousands of migrants in Texas and Arizona border cities, drawing criticism from Republican governors who bused migrants to Democratic cities farther north.

Fort Bliss, the Texas military base, is currently sheltering about 80 unaccompanied migrant children after housing thousands during a sharp increase in crossings in 2021, leading to reports of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, spoiled food state and problems of depression.