Biden stops automatic deportation of asylum seekers to Mexico

The administration of US President Joe Biden announced yesterday that it will stop the policy of deporting asylum seekers to Mexico while their applications are considered, starting next week, in a reversal of the policy adopted by the administration of former President Donald Trump.

"As of February 19, the Department of Homeland Security begins the first phase of its program to resume a secure and orderly path on the southwestern border," an administration statement said.

She explained that the immigrants who were targeted by a procedure placed by Donald Trump, bearing the name "Stay in Mexico", will be admitted to the US.

This policy, established in 2019, does not apply to Mexicans, but rather forces asylum seekers arriving through Mexico to stay there while their applications are processed.

The policy has been criticized by human rights groups.

Under the program, at least 70,000 asylum seekers were returned to Mexico, most of them from Central America, which caused a humanitarian crisis on the Mexican side of the border exacerbated by the Corona virus, according to the American Immigration Board.

Currently, 25,000 asylum applications are being processed, according to an official in the Democratic Administration.

For his part, the US Secretary of the Interior Alejandro Mayoras, the first Hispanic American to hold this position, hailed this "new phase in our commitment to amend immigration policies that are inconsistent with our nation's values."

Since his first day in the White House, Biden has made pledges to the left wing of the Democratic Party, which is waiting for a radical shift in immigration policy after four years devoted to closing the borders of the United States.

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