The White House on Tuesday urged potential Central American asylum seekers not to rush to the U.S.-Mexico border as President Biden puts an end to the former president’s policy Donald Trump “Stay in Mexico.”
The 2018 policy required asylum seekers arriving at the border with Mexico to wait for a decision on their claims before entering the United States.
Applicants currently awaiting a decision will be admitted to the United States under the phasing out of Biden.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy, Liz Sherwood-Randall, said in a statement that the initial reversal of “Remain in Mexico” will only apply to 71,000 applicants for asylum that are already part of the program.
“If you seek entry into the United States and you have no active MPP case, you will be expelled immediately and not allowed to remain in the United States,” they said.
In December, then-President-elect Biden said he was concerned about abruptly relaxing Trump’s immigration policies, lest he unleash “2 million people on our border.”
Proponents of the “Stay in Mexico” policy say it deters asylum seekers from entering the U.S. despite knowing that their claim to persecution is likely to be denied. Some asylum seekers in the U.S. have work permits as their claims are processed.
Opponents of politics claim that northern Mexico can be as dangerous as Central American countries killed by fleeing applicants.
Sullivan and Sherwood-Randall said new asylum seekers should not plan to report to the border immediately.
“We warn people who want to emigrate to the United States that our borders are not open and that this is only the first phase in the administration’s work to reopen access to an orderly asylum process,” the White House officials.
“This new process applies to people who were returned to Mexico under the MPP program and have pending cases before the Immigration Review Executive Office.”
They said that “people outside the United States who were not returned to Mexico by MPP or who do not have active immigration lawsuits will not be considered to participate in this first phase of this program and should wait for further instructions.” .