The Biden Administration started taking a hammer to a cornerstone of former President Trump’s immigration policy, as on Friday they allowed the first asylum-seekers …
The Biden Administration started taking a hammer to a cornerstone of former President Trump’s immigration policy, as on Friday they allowed the first asylum-seekers into the country. President Biden’s new rules let 25 asylum-seekers stay in the US Friday as they await their hearing, instead of remaining in Mexico, as they had to do under the previous administration. The migrants tested negative for COVID-19 and were taken to San Diego hotels to quarantine before traveling by plane or bus to their final destinations, according to Michael Hopkins, chief executive officer of Jewish Family Service of San Diego, which is helping the effort. The US is expected to release 25 asylum-seekers per day in California. Migrants are also expected to be let into Brownsville and El Paso, Texas beginning next week. There are an estimated 25,000 people with active cases in the program; several hundred of them are appealing decisions. Officials have warned migrants not to flood the border as the Trump-era program is slowly phased out and instead register online through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees early next week. “This latest action is another step in our commitment to reform immigration policies that do not align with our nation’s values,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement last week. Friday’s developments at the border are the beginning of the fulfillment of a campaign promise by President Biden to end the policy known as “Migrant Protection Protocols,” which Trump implemented to reverse a surge of asylum-seekers.
