Biden Admin to Accept Some Migrants Waiting in Mexico Into US as Refugees

Migrants seeking asylum wait for U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to allow them enter the United States at the San Ysidro crossing port on the U.S.-Mexico border, as seen from Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on May 31, 2023. Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images

The Biden White House announced on July 28 it will accept some migrants currently waiting in Mexico into the United States, to resettle as refugees.

The Biden administration will “commit to accept refugee resettlement referrals from qualified individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who are already in Mexico,” national security advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

Those who can enter the United States with refugee status will be eligible for government assistance and will have the opportunity to apply for permanent residency and eventually citizenship.

Mexico announced on July 26 it will set up a service center offering jobs and resettlement for people from the four countries. It said the center will be on Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, but did not specify where or when it would open.

The new center “would provide refugee services, and at the same employment options, to connect migrants with the big projects being built in the south southeast,” Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said in a statement.

Mexico is building a tourist train line, a string of industrial parks, an oil refinery, and other projects in the area.

When the U.S. government began requiring migrants to apply online or from their home countries for asylum, many of them had already begun the journey to the U.S. border and found themselves in Mexico. The Mexican center is intended to serve these people.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks at a press briefing at the White House on April 24, 2023. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

Mr. Sullivan referred to the service center as an “international multipurpose space.”

The Biden administration in recent months introduced new policies to grant humanitarian parole for two years for up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and to receive permission to work during that period. The migrants would have to apply online with a financial sponsor and arrive at an airport.

It was unclear whether referrals accepted from Mexico would have to have a financial sponsor.

Mr. Sullivan gave no details on how the refugee resettlement referrals would work or how many people would be accepted into the U.S. refugee resettlement program.

‘Legal Migration Pathways’

It’s the latest effort in the Biden administration’s goal to “expand access to safe, orderly, legal migration pathways,” Mr. Sullivan said, adding that migrants are encouraged “to use these legal pathways instead of putting their lives in the hands of dangerous smugglers and traffickers.”

“Pursuant to our laws, those seeking to enter the United States unlawfully will continue to face strong consequences, including removal, possible criminal prosecution, and a bar on reentry,” he added.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently asserted that his management of the United States southwest border has been a success.

“Our approach to managing the border securely and humanely—even within our fundamentally broken immigration system—is working,” he declared at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on July 26.

He added, “Unlawful entries between ports of entry along the southwest border have consistently decreased by more than half compared to the peak before the end of Title 42.”

Criticisms

Republican lawmakers have criticized the Biden administration for diverting migrants to various parole programs, which they say is an abuse of parole authority.

They’ve also criticized the administration over its policy surrounding the CBP One app, through which migrants can book appointments at U.S. ports of entry in order to seek asylum or seek parole under humanitarian grounds.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said on July 26 at the House Judiciary Committee hearing that millions of people are in the United States illegally, regardless of how Mr. Mayorkas defines their entry.

“Instead of bringing them to the southern border, you’re bringing them directly to ports of entry,” Mr. McClintock said.

CBP One is for people of any nationality in central and northern Mexico entering the United States by land and seeking asylum or humanitarian parole. Migrants must book an appointment through the app and show up to the appointment at U.S. ports of entry. If they don’t have an appointment, they would be turned away.

Mr. McClintock said the influx of people at the border has not decreased, noting that the CBP One app “allows migrants to bypass the southern border and enter directly in the United States’ ports of entry.”

Exploiting CBP One

A U.S. Border Patrol union leader told The Epoch Times in May that migrants who entered the United States illegally are being coached to voluntarily withdraw their asylum claims, return to Mexico, and then seek to enter the United States on humanitarian grounds.

Manny Bayon, a National Border Patrol Council union spokesman in San Diego, told The Epoch Times that under CBP One illegal immigrants are encouraged to abandon their asylum claims and instead apply for “humanitarian parole” to make it “look like they’re entering legally.”

While it appears that “illegal entrant migrants” are being deported to Mexico, they’re actually withdrawing their asylum claims, going to Mexico, and then coming back into the United States legally through a U.S. port of entry by using CBP One, he said.

Erin Heeter, a DHS spokesperson, previously told The Epoch Times via email that as of June 1, CBP One appointments were increased to 1,250 a day from 1,000—this amounts to about 30,000 to 37,500 appointments per month.

Samantha Flom, Michael Clements, Brad Jones, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: This article has been further edited for clarity.