President Joe Biden is trying to broker a deal with Mexico that would allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the country legally, while non-Mexican illegal migrants are deported en masse across the southern border.
The deal would be a breakthrough for the president, who hopes to resolve the worsening border crisis ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
Biden has previously said the country’s inability to return migrants to their home countries was a leading factor in the record number of illegal crossings the US has seen in recent months.
The new policy would result in non-Mexican migrants illegally entering the US being deported to Mexico. According to sources, the deal is not yet finalized, but Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is open to negotiations. Washington Post.
The deal is contingent on Biden expanding the parole process, expediting work permits for migrants with sponsors in the US, which could cause significant spikes in legal migrants. News of the deal comes as Title 42 — the pandemic-era border policy used to evict migrants — expires this spring after being previously extended.
President Joe Biden is trying to solve the border crisis before the next presidential election
Venezuelan migrants lined up outside the United States border near El Paso, Texas
Dois Meissner, the Clinton administration’s top immigration official, told the Washington Post that the policy would be an unprecedented measure that could be a “game changer” for Biden and border security.
“I think we’ve entered a new era and new territory,” Meissner said.
The new plan could bolster the Department of Homeland Security’s soon-to-be-announced police force, which aims to create a “presumption against asylum eligibility” and penalize migrants who fail to enter the U.S. or the countries they travel through through proper legal channels. to get there, be penalized .
Sources said the deportations would be carried out through an “accelerated removal process” and that Mexico would take in the expellees depending on which countries they came from.
Mexico would accept migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba, according to the Post.
Under the plan, non-Mexican migrants who enter the US illegally face arrest, incarceration, deportation to Mexico, a five-year ban from the US and the prospect of jail time and charges for a second illegal crossing.
While Mexico has previously resisted taking in migrants expelled from the US – to avoid becoming a “safe third country” – President Obrador has expressed a willingness to take in migrants if Mexico can determine which countries they come from. come.
While Mexico has previously resisted taking in migrants expelled from the US – to avoid becoming a “safe third country” – President Obrador has expressed a willingness to take in migrants if Mexico can determine which countries they come from. come.
Migrants return to Mexico after being expelled from the United States
Migrants from Ecuador and Nicaragua in El Paso, Texas, wait for immigration officials
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is open to negotiations with the US
The Biden administration has said the plan will move migrants away from illegal and dangerous methods of entry, and toward safer and more controlled legal entrances.
One such legal method is the parole process, which allows migrants with U.S. sponsors to enter and transit the country, quickly being allowed to work in the country with a two-year permit.
Biden hopes to expand and use that parole system to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to legally enter the country, the Post said.
Critics have said the Biden administration would abuse the parole process by using it for mass migrations rather than the individual case for which it was intended. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Jan. 24 challenging the extension of the parole process.
The Biden administration defended their measures, arguing that they are crucial to the new deal with Mexico.
That parole was critical to Mexico’s decision to begin accepting the deportation or removal of non-citizens from those four countries who attempt to enter the United States at its southern border without using the new roads,” said the Ministry of Justice.
Mexico has not responded to the latest developments
“There are ongoing conversations about the different scenarios given the changing legal, policy and human mobility landscape,” State Department Chief Attorney General Roberto Velasco said, according to The Post. “So far there are no decisions about the next steps for our migration cooperation.”
Migrants cross the Rio Bravo River as they leave Mexico and try to enter the US
Migrants in Mexico at the United States border wall last December
President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in July
Meanwhile, the Mexican government said on Monday it opposes a potential reboot of US immigration policy, known as “Remain in Mexico,” that would have required asylum seekers to wait for US hearings in Mexico.
President Biden has attempted to end the program, which was introduced by the Trump administration and is currently suspended.
But US states such as Texas and Missouri have sued to keep the program active and in December a US judge interrupted Biden’s attempt, saying the Department of Homeland Security had not sufficiently explained why the policy was ineffective and had to be deleted.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry has not given reasons for its opposition. Activists claim the policy, officially called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), leaves migrants stranded in dangerous border towns where they face threats of kidnapping and extortion.
If the Mexican government remains firm in its defiance, US officials will likely have to consider whether asylum seekers can remain in the United States while their claims are assessed, or make other arrangements to remove them from the country.
According to the State Department, some 74,000 migrants passed through Mexico under the program when former President Donald Trump was in power. Under Biden, that number is just 7,500.
Marsha Espinosa, a spokesman for the US Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement to Reuters on Monday that the Biden administration will continue to try to end MPP through the courts.
“Our ability to implement MPP under a court order has always depended on the willingness of the government of Mexico to accept returns under MPP,” Espinosa added.
