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Biden Is Already Unraveling Some Of Trump's Immigration Policies
FILE PHOTO: Asylum seekers at a migrant shelter in Tijuana, Baja California, December 16, 2018. (Peggy Peattie for LAist)
The newly-inaugurated Biden administration wasted no time in taking two major steps to dismantle much-criticized Trump-era immigration policies in its first day in office.
The Department of Homeland Security announced that, starting Thursday, it would pause deportations for certain non-citizens in the United States for 100 days and would stop new enrollments in the Migrant Protection Protocols policy, also known as the "remain in Mexico" program.
That controversial policy required asylum-seekers trying to enter the U.S. from the southern border to wait in Mexico for American immigration court hearings.
The program has led to roughly 60,000 migrants getting sent back across the border since MPP was first implemented two years ago. Tens of thousands of non-Mexican migrants are still stuck in Mexico, awaiting their court hearings and living in unsanitary and potentially dangerous situations. The policy has placed enormous strain on Mexico, even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thousands more migrants from Latin America have pushed their way toward Mexico in recent days. Some have told journalists that they are making their way north because they expect it to be easier to enter the U.S. under the Biden administration. Others say the economic situation and violence in Honduras has made remaining there untenable. The increase in migrants, however, promises even more stress on Mexico and the U.S. immigration system.
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