Irregular immigration to the United States, which broke records last year, has become one of the flanks on which the conservative opposition has attacked President Joe Biden most forcefully. The Republicans assure that the country is undergoing “an invasion” and want to politically prosecute the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Biden decided this Thursday to take new measures to strengthen control of the border with Mexico and in exchange he promises to offer new channels for legal immigration, in particular to people who can demonstrate ties or roots with the country and who come from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti. , as senior government officials have argued. The president announced that he will travel to El Paso, Texas this Sunday, in his first visit to the border since taking office.

Biden made the announcement Thursday, days before his trip to Mexico City, where he will meet with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday and Tuesday. The meeting of North American leaders will address issues such as the climate crisis and economic development, but, according to Biden himself, the agenda will focus on “strengthening” the border with Mexico. The president will assess detention and border control operations in El Paso, Texas, in a region that declared a state of emergency due to the increasing arrival of South American immigrants in late December. “I know very well that migration increases tension in border communities,” Biden said from the White House.

The government assures that the new package of measures is unprecedented. One of the star initiatives is the expansion of the process that allows people residing in the United States to apply on behalf of a Venezuelan citizen to enter the country if they demonstrate they have the means of subsistence or the support space needed to survive. This measure is now extended to Nicaraguan, Haitian and Cuban nationals. “Up to 30,000 people per month from these four countries, who have a sponsor who meets the requirements and passes the background checks, will be able to come to the United States for a period of two years and receive work authorization,” say government sources. . Those who take advantage of this program will undergo a background investigation and must be vaccinated.

Biden explained that this request must be initiated outside the United States and followed by a request from the Bureau of Customs and Border Control (CBP, for its acronym in English). One of the conditions is that foreign citizens entering the process do not cross the border illegally. “If the application is denied or if they attempt to cross illegally, they will be returned to Mexico and will not be eligible for this program in the future,” he said. Mexico accepted the return of up to 30,000 people per month from these four countries. This penalty is also extendable for those who illegally cross the borders of Panama and Mexico. ” The message is clear. People need to stay where they are and start the process there,” Mayorkas added.

The Homeland Security Secretary revealed the keys to the Biden administration’s immigration policy in lifting Title 42, the health measure imposed by former President Donald Trump during the pandemic that quickly deports immigrants. immigrants. The Minister said that applications for humanitarian asylum must be processed in an application and an appointment must be made in advance to present themselves at customs. “Those who use this process may be eligible for work permits while in the United States,” he says. In addition, the government plans to welcome up to 20,000 refugees from Latin American and Caribbean countries in fiscal years 2023 and 2024.

Mayorkas assured that to reduce the flow of immigrants arriving at the border with Mexico, the sanctions will be more severe. Those who arrive without following the procedures or who cannot defend their asylum requests will be deported “rapidly” and will be banned from entering the United States for five years.

The U.S. announcement was welcomed by Mexico, which says the humanitarian permit program for Venezuelans has worked well, with irregular daily crossings down 94% since its launch last October. They have fallen from more than 1,500 to less than 100. The Mexican Foreign Ministry assures that Washington’s announcement will allow an unprecedented injection of labor into the region. “This will total 360,000 people in 2024, the largest labor mobility expansion in modern U.S. history,” Foreign Relations said in a statement.

Title 42

Although a legacy of Trump, Biden was forced to resort to Title 42 to ease the border. His administration tried to repeal it without success. “I don’t like title 42, it will go away one day and we will have to use other measures,” the president said. In a recent decision, the Supreme Court decided to keep it in force. The president ventured that the measure could be in effect until June. His visit to El Paso will focus on understanding the dynamics Title 42 will have on the 3,000-mile frontier in the months ahead.

Senior Biden government officials assure that all of these measures will serve to increase border security and reduce the number of people crossing illegally, while expanding and accelerating legal pathways for orderly migration.

The administration will increase resources for the border and expand its anti-smuggling operations. “It is important to note that the measures announced today are being implemented in close collaboration with Mexico and governments across the Western Hemisphere. While these measures will help solve some of the most serious problems on the southwestern border, they will not solve all the problems of an immigration system that has not worked for too long,” say senior government officials, who counterattack Republican critics: “It can happen if Republicans in Congress, who have spent the last two years talking about border security, stop blocking comprehensive immigration reform and border security measures that the President Biden proposed on his first day in office, and oppose the billions of dollars in additional funding the President has requested for border security and management.” “Unlike some Republicans who play political games and stand in the way of real solutions to fix our broken immigration system, President Biden has a plan and is acting.”

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