The wait ended for a group of 25 migrants, the first to pass from Mexico to the United States this Friday, where they continue their asylum procedures as part of President Joe Biden’s new immigration policy.
Their entry from the city of Tijuana (north) marked the end of the measure that forced them to stay in Mexico while the US courts responded to their requests.
That policy was imposed by former President Donald Trump through the Migrant Protection Program (MPP).
The migrants crossed the bus to neighboring San Diego, accompanied by staff from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an AFP journalist found.
An officer in charge of a San Diego shelter confirmed to his side that these people were already staying in a hotel and that they would receive help getting to their destination.
To be direct beneficiaries, the stakeholders must have started an asylum procedure.
“UNHCR is the one who is leading the trial with the government of Mexico, they determine who has an active case before the immigration court or an appeal,” Ericka Piñero, a lawyer with the migrant protection organization Al Otro Lado, told the press.
– Returned –
At the border gate of the El Chaparral sector (Tijuana), numerous migrants spent the night on one side of the railing that marks the border.
There were a hundred Central Americans and about 400 Haitians.
With their few possessions, some of which carried entire families and wearing masks to protect themselves from Covid-19, they hopefully faced north.
Most admitted that they had not initiated any proceedings and only three managed to cross over to applause. But they were only in the United States for a short time: they were returned due to computer problems.
Honduran Nelly Cabrera crossed over with her documents for a hearing scheduled for next Friday, but which was postponed until next Wednesday.
“I trust the new president that he will listen to me and help me because I’ve been here for two years now,” she told AFP after returning to Mexico.
– Hope and Disappointment –
The crowd was discouraged by the Zero Movement North. There was Haitian Geraldine Nacice, who arrived in Tijuana two years ago and has a daughter who was born in Mexico.
“The truth is I don’t have an appointment, but I can’t go to my country anymore, in Haiti there is currently war. My family is waiting for me,” he said in the United States.
Cuban Yabdiel Álvarez also had the hearing scheduled for next Friday, but he doesn’t mind waiting any longer.
“There was no hope, there is already with the new president Joe Biden,” he says.
Meanwhile, in Matamoros (northwest), on the Brownsville border and from where the first migrants are expected to leave a camp built a stone’s throw from the United States, UNHCR staff reported that they will begin crossing next Tuesday. .
There, a group of people from the states of Guerrero and Chiapas tried to enter to be involved 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 receive orderly calls.
A Guatemalan migration authority reported 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.
The Mexican government had historically refused to accept deported migrants of other nationalities, but with the rise to power of the leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador in December 2018, Mexico became a de facto safe third country.
López Obrador gave in to Trump’s tariff pressure after the massive caravans of late 2018 and early 2019.
In this way, the MPP was consolidated, sending some 70,000 people back to Mexico between January 2019 and December 2020, according to US citizen organizations.
According to the Mexican government, about 6,000 migrants remain in the country as part of the “Stay in Mexico” program.