The U.S. sends first migrants to Mexico in a new Trump-era policy

The U.S. sends first migrants to Mexico in a new Trump-era policy. 

After resuming the Trump era, the United States has returned the first two asylum seekers to Mexico. The program of removing asylum applicants off U.S. soil, officials declared Wednesday, as Biden administration is under pressure to limit immigration.

Mexico and the United States and Mexico last week agreed to revive the controversial program called Migrant Protection Protocols. 

According to the federal court’s order, it requires asylum seekers to remain in Mexico to attend U.S. immigration hearings.

Mexico was able to make the restart dependent on Washington fulfilling certain conditions. It is like providing vaccines for asylum seekers and exempting vulnerable people from being expelled.

The two migrants who were the first to return under the revised scheme entered Mexico through the border crossing of Ciudad Juarez opposite El Paso, Texas, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Mexico.

Two whom he identified with the name Enrique Manzanares from Nicaragua admitted to feeling a bit sad but thanked God that he is alive.

“In the end, nothing was lost,” Manzanares said to Reuters. “Some of us make it, and others don’t.”

The Mexican official has confirmed the restart, stating that it would be limited to only two migrants.

The IOM confirmed that the two persons received COVID-19 test results when they arrived in Mexico. IOM representatives led them to a refuge situated in Ciudad Juarez recognized by U.S. and Mexican authorities.

The United Nations-backed organization also demanded MPP be stopped as soon as possible, describing the practice in an announcement as “inhumane and contrary to international law.”

A spokesperson from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)said that the Department of Homeland Security began the court-ordered re-implementation of MPP in one place.

“For operational security reasons, DHS is not sharing details such as the location of initial returns or number of individuals enrolled,” the CBP spokesperson stated.

According to the CBP, MPP will be back in Mexico at seven entry points located in San Diego, Calexico, Nogales, El Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo, and Brownsville once fully operational stated.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has fought to undo the hardline immigration policies put in the country through Trump. Republican successor, Donald Trump, faces record levels of arrests for migrants along with border crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Biden abruptly ended MPP shortly after his inauguration in January, as he sought to take what he claimed was an approach that was more humane to immigration. 

However, a federal judge decided Biden’s decision was not by the correct procedure, and in August, he ordered MPP reinstated.

Misael Hernandez, a migration expert from Mexican research institute COLEF and COLEF, told Mexico had difficulty dealing with the expulsions.

That is flooding in as many shelters in North Mexico. And they are struggling to cope with an increasing number of migrants from the south.

“This is a setback in immigration policy between Mexico and the United States,” the president said. “And an example of Trump’s power in Congress and U.S. courts to go against Biden’s promises.”