Ciudad Juarez.
Migrants celebrated this Friday the decision of the government of President Joe Biden to dismantle the Trump-era migration program which forced them to remain in Mexico while his asylum application in the United States was being resolved.
“With this news our miracle is about to come true,” Nicol Bueso, a Honduran migrant 19-year-old who has been waiting at the border for 18 months Ciudad Juarez.
“It’s a great joy because in all this time we’ve been here waiting we’ve had a lot of ugly times,” said the woman, who remains in a city hostel.
For his part, José Madrid, a 40-year-old Honduran migrant, thanked the Biden government for the decision.
“Life is very difficult in Central America and we thank the president for making that decision and helping Central America, “said Madrid, who has been waiting in Ciudad Juárez for 20 months.
In early February, Biden instructed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to take action to end the controversial Migrant Protection (MPP) program instituted by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
This agreement forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to remain at the border pending the resolution of their cases, which created a humanitarian crisis in the area, aggravated by the covid-19 pandemic.
The NGO American Immigration Council estimates that by January 2019, when the program began to be implemented, by December 2020, at least 70,000 people had been returned to Mexico under the MPP agreements.
This controversial program was part of Trump’s plan to fight irregular immigration, following the mass caravans of late 2018 and early 2019.
Trump had throughout his presidency the fight against irregular immigration as one of his government’s hallmarks, which included his tenacious efforts to raise a border wall and plans like the “zero tolerance” policy that separated thousands of migrant families.