As Border Crisis Persists, Biden Deploys 1,500 Troops, Opens New Immigration Centers

Updated May 3, 2023

• The U.S. is sending 1,500 troops to the Mexico border in advance of an expected surge in migration and asylum-seeking with the May 11 expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era migration policy.
• Title 42 allowed the government to automatically deport any undocumented migrants, including asylum seekers, ostensibly on Covid-19 public health emergency grounds. 
• The newly deployed troops will bolster the 2,500 National Guard forces already at the border and will provide help with narcotics detection, warehouse support, transportation, and data processing.
• The additional personnel will be deployed for 90 days to fill "critical capability gaps," according to the Department of Defense.
• CBP official Troy Miller told Congress that he expects his agency to process over 10,000 migrants a day upon the expiration of Title 42.
• In 2022, over 2.76 million attempts were recorded, the highest on record. 

• Two weeks before Trump-era Title 42 ends, the Biden admin has decided to set up migrant processing centers throughout Latin America to address the ongoing migrant crisis and to stem the tide of migrants reaching the border.
• Title 42 has been used over 2.7 million times to expel prospective asylum-seekers on Covid-19 grounds.
• Title 42's dissolution on May 11, when the Covid public health emergency ends, comes at a time of year that is historically busy in terms of migration. 

What is the administration saying?

• Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that regional processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia will be opened within two weeks.
• Mayorkas said:

“The whole model is to reach the people where they are — to cut the smugglers out and to have them avoid the perilous journey that too many do not make. But we are beginning in Guatemala and Colombia. We are beginning at the level that I described, and we will scale up.” 

• Politico has reported that more centers could be opened in Costa Rica and Ecuador but that the government is still negotiating future locations.
• Spain and Canada have publicly agreed to accept referrals from the U.S. processing centers.
• A senior administrator said of Biden's immigration policies:

“[It’s] a significant plan that is really at a level of ambition and scale that has never been done before. However, there is far more that we could do if we had the cooperation of Congress. They have really tied our hands, and so we really do appeal to Congress to work with us.”

What will the migrant centers do?

• Partners, including the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, will screen migrants at these centers and determine if they qualify for entry into the U.S. 
• The goal is to screen migrants before they make the treacherous journey north to the U.S. border and to provide them with lawful migration pathways, including claiming refugee status, family reunification, or labor pathways. 
• The U.S. is expecting to screen 5,000 to 6,000 migrants a month at these new centers. 
• Admin officials have also announced the expansion of family reunification migration pathways to citizens from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Colombia. This program was previously only available to Cubans and Haitians.

What's the story?

• Thousands of migrants are marching north to Mexico City as part of a mass protest to demand the end of inhumane conditions at detention centers and a continuing legacy of injustice.
• The caravan, which left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on Sunday, consists of roughly 3,000 people. They have been walking throughout the day in temperatures exceeding 95F and don't plan to reach the capital until late next week. 
• Most protesters originate from Central America, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia, countries impacted by cartel violence, poverty, femicide, and environmental degradation.
• The majority of these migrants attempt to seek asylum in the U.S., but the number pursuing refuge in Mexico is growing. It is currently unknown whether the migrant caravan will continue north to the U.S. border.

What do the protesters want?

• The protests are a reaction to the mistreatment of migrants and, more specifically, to the fatal fire at a detention center in the border city of Ciudad Juárez that killed forty people on March 27. The blaze started when detained migrants set fire to foam mattresses upon learning they would be deported back to their countries of origin.
• Last week, roughly two dozen makeshift tents at a migrant camp in Matamoros were also set on fire, highlighting the growing frustration and instability at the border.
• The protesters are demanding better treatment of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, with some holding signs insinuating government culpability in the fatal fire. They're fighting for Mexico's National Immigration Institute to be dissolved and for those responsible for the fire to face legal consequences.

What are people saying?

• The caravan offers safety in numbers for the protesters. Human rights groups warn that attempts to break up and separate the protesters can make individuals vulnerable to people smugglers and traffickers.
• Salvadoran migrant Miriam Argueta told the Associated Press:

"The only thing we are asking for is justice, and to be treated like anyone else."

•  Venezuelan migrant Estefany Peroez, traveling with her three daughters, said:

"We don't have anything to eat, the authorities don't help us, we are doing this to give my daughters a better life."

• Mexican prosecutors have said they will press charges against the immigration agency's top official, Francisco Garduño, for his role in a "pattern of irresponsibility" in the Immigration Institute.

What is the role of the U.S.?

• Asylum seekers stuck in Mexico due to strict U.S. immigration policies are in legal limbo and are facing human rights abuses at the hands of organized crime, government neglect, and people smugglers.
• While Biden's new rules create a legal pathway for migrants to claim asylum in the U.S., they also empower border staff to turn away migrants who have not taken advantage of it, sending individuals and families back to Mexico or their home countries.
• Asylum seekers must now use an app to schedule an appointment for an asylum hearing at the U.S.-Mexico border before arrival, or they will be turned away at the border. However, difficulties have beset the app, creating further barriers for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty — including failure to read the faces of darker-skinned applicants and a demand for tech fluency, access to a newer phone, and reliable internet connection.

Is the U.S. doing enough to help migrants?

—Emma Kansiz 

(Photo Credit: Pionero Philanthropy)