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After days of confusion over changes along the southern border, the Biden administration said on Wednesday immigrants should not try to enter the United States, as most will still be turned away under a policy from the Trump era that recently came under legal scrutiny.
Since March, border authorities have used a section of the public health code known as Title 42 to immediately turn back immigrants to the border in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus. It was a sea change in the way the United States treated immigrants and effectively closed the border to asylum seekers.
Despite hopes among activists that President Joe Biden would change course, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday that “the vast majority” of immigrants would continue to be deported at the border .
“Now is not the time to come,” Psaki said. “There have been incredibly narrow and limited circumstances in which individuals have entered the country awaiting hearing, but the vast majority have been turned away.”
Confusion over who was allowed to enter the United States in recent days has forced the administration to issue a stronger warning. Last week, reports that some families were allowed to enter the United States after being apprehended at the border sparked speculation that immigrants would no longer be immediately deported and would instead be allowed to fight their cases of immigration from the United States. In the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, immigration advocates have reported seeing about 100 people a day released by customs and border protection. In other areas of Texas, shelters have also seen an increasing number of immigrant families, but it’s unclear why.
Lawyers and attorneys who work with immigrants along the border have been bombarded with phone calls and texts asking if they should take a chance on entering the United States. Erika Pinheiro, director of policy and litigation at immigrant advocacy group Al Otro Lado, said it was “incredibly disappointing” that the Biden administration continued to deport immigrants under CDC orders.
“We now know that the CDC order banning the processing of asylum claims at the border did not stem from public health concerns but rather was part of Stephen Miller’s efforts to dismantle the American asylum system and was put implemented despite opposition from the CDC leadership, ”Pinheiro said, referring to one of Trump’s former senior advisers. “America’s deportations of asylum seekers, including infants, are gross violations of national and international laws designed to protect vulnerable refugees. CBP absolutely has the resources to treat asylum seekers in a safe and humane manner. “
Rollbacks, known as deportations, are legally different from deportations, which would mean that an immigrant has actually gone through the immigration process and is not legally allowed to stay in the United States. . Critics say the government is using public health orders as an excuse to turn immigrants back across the border.
The Biden administration, which has warned it will take time to reverse Trump’s immigration policies, has already led a review of the policy to determine if it is necessary. The administration, however, said it would not use the broad public health powers to deport unaccompanied immigrant children at the southern border, despite a federal appeals court paving the way for doing so.
“While we recognize that the Biden administration has been grappling with a lot of bad policies and structural problems, it cannot continue the Trump administration’s practice of turning away people at risk on the basis of illegal policies, such as than the notorious and pretextual policy of Title 42 ”. said Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the ACLU.
Last week, CBP said families were recently released due to COVID-19 restrictions, which caused some of its facilities to reach capacity. Mexico also recently passed a law prohibiting authorities from keeping undocumented immigrant children in detention centers. With no space to keep families in US detention centers, and Mexico refusing to take them away, CBP has started releasing some.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said the country continued to accept Central American nationals deported by U.S. border officials, but there had been some changes locally in recent days due to the law on child protection.
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