Waiting is over: with new Biden policy, first migrants cross to the USA

The wait is over for a group of 25 migrants, the first to cross this Friday (19) from Mexico to the United States, where they will continue with their asylum application process as part of the new immigration policy of American President Joe Biden . 

Their entry from the city of Tijuana marked the end of the measure that forced them to stay in Mexico while the American courts responded to their requests. 

This policy was implemented by former President Donald Trump through the Migrant Protection Program (MPP). 

The migrants crossed on a bus to the city of San Diego, in the USA, accompanied by officials of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an AFP journalist learns.

An official in charge of a shelter for migrants in San Diego confirmed in turn that these people were already staying in a hotel and that they would receive help to get to their destinations.

To be immediate beneficiaries, those interested must already have an asylum process started. 

"UNHCR is the one who conducts the process with the government of Mexico, they define who has an active case before the immigration judge or an appeal," Ericka Piñero, lawyer for the defense organization for migrants Al Otro Lado, told the press. 

- Returned -

In El Chaparral, Tijuana, several migrants spent the night beside the railing that marks the border between Mexico and the United States. There were about 100 Central Americans and 400 Haitians.

With their few belongings, some carrying entire families and wearing protective masks against the covid-19, they looked with hope to the north. 

The majority acknowledged that they did not start any formal procedure and only three managed to cross between applause. However, they stayed in the United States for a short time: they were returned under the allegation of technical problems. - Hope and disappointment -

Honduran Nelly Maribel Cabrera filed her documents for a court hearing that had been scheduled for this Friday, but was postponed until next Wednesday. 

"I trust the new president, that he will listen to me and help me because I have been here for two years," Cabrera told AFP after being returned to Mexico. The crowd was discouraged by the lack of progress to the north. There was the Haitian Geraldine Nacice, who arrived in Tijuana two years ago and has a daughter born in Mexico. "Actually, I don't have anything scheduled, but I can't go to my country anymore, Haiti is at war now. My family is waiting for me" in the United States, he said.







Cuban Yabdiel Álvarez also had his hearing scheduled for this Friday, but he does not mind waiting a little longer. "There was no hope, now it exists with new President Joe Biden," he says. There, a group of people from the states of Guerrero and Chiapas tried to enter to be included in the operation, but the camp has been closed since Thursday. The United States has asked to avoid travel to the border, indicating that only those who meet the admission requirements will be called in an orderly manner. A Guatemalan migration official said on Friday that Central American countries are preparing a plan for a possible wave of migration of Haitians, Cubans, Asians and Africans to the United States.

Meanwhile, in Matamoros, on the border with Brownsville, where the first migrants were to leave a camp set a few steps from the United States, according to UNHCR, they will begin the crossing next Tuesday.







The Mexican government used to refuse to receive migrants deported from other nationalities, but with the arrival of leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador in December 2018, Mexico has indeed become a safe third country.

López Obrador gave in to Trump's tariff pressures, after the huge caravans of late 2018 and early 2019. 

This is how the MPP was consolidated, through which around 70 thousand people were returned to Mexico between January 2019 and December 2020 , according to American civil organizations. 

According to the Mexican government, some 6,000 migrants remain in the country as part of the "Stay in Mexico" program.