President Joe Biden’s administration restarted the “Remain in Mexico” program on Tuesday at the U.S Mexico Border between Tijuana and San Diego.
Up to 9,000 migrants will have to wait for asylum requests, according to calculations by the organizations and shelters, which have feared the accumulation of migrants will exceed the capacity of refuge in the region.
The Center of Legal Defense of Migrants confirmed that organizations in California were notified on Monday that the program's new phase was initially imposed by the Trump administration will be continued by the Biden administration.
Directors of some shelters for migrants in Tijuana confirmed they were informed that the program was restarting this Tuesday with the coordination of the International Organization of Migration.
The American Civil Liberties Union on California’s border warned that the program could endanger the safety of many migrants in the region.
The re-implementation of the Remain in Mexico program in San Diego will unnecessarily subject many asylum seekers to trauma, suffering, and violations of due process "that need to be brought before immigration courts", according to the ACLU.
"The same damages that were well documented in its previous implementation will continue unless Remain in Mexico is completely ended," the national organization said.
During the Trump administration, more than 70,000 people who sought refuge in the United States had to wait at the Mexican border, where they did not have access to lawyers or social services, or shelter, food, and other necessities. Many were separated from their families and loved ones.
According to ACLU calculations, during the previous period of the program, up to 14,000 people waited in Tijuana and to a lesser number in Mexicali for asylum proceedings before the San Diego immigration court.
The ACLU called this time “on the Biden administration to permanently rescind 'Remain in Mexico' and immediately end all other measures that obstruct access to asylum, including Title 42, another unfair provision that turns people away at the border under the pretext of public health ”.
Under Title 42, an alleged sanitary protection measure, the border patrol is authorized to ignore asylum requests from families who surrender and to return migrants immediately to the Mexican border, including through the same place where they crossed into the United States.
