Tamaulipas is receiving a large number of asylum seekers due to Trump-era migration policy return

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FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019 file photo asylum seekers in Tijuana, Mexico, listen to names being called from a waiting list to claim asylum at a border crossing in San Diego. A federal judge has ruled that a partial ban on asylum doesn't apply to anyone who appeared at an official border crossing before July 16 to make a claim, a move that could spare thousands of people. The administration said in July that it would deny asylum to anyone who traveled through another country without applying there first. The ban was on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court decided in September that it could take effect during a legal challenge. (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat,File)

MATAMOROS, TAMAULIPAS — When the Supreme Court effectively revived a cornerstone of Trump-era migration policy late last month, it looked like a major defeat for President Joe Biden.

After all, Biden had condemned the policy — which requires asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico — as “inhumane” and suspended it on his first day in office, part of an aggressive push to dismantle former President Donald Trump’s harshest migration policies.

But among some Biden officials, the Supreme Court’s order was quietly greeted with something other than dismay, current and former officials said: It brought some measure of relief.

Migrants, mostly from Central America and Haiti, wait on the International Bridge to enter the United States to seek asylum, in Matamoros, Mexico, Aug. 23, 2021. (Daniele Volpe/The New York Times).
Migrants, mostly from Central America and Haiti, wait on the International Bridge to enter the United States to seek asylum, in Matamoros, Mexico, Aug. 23, 2021. (Daniele Volpe/The New York Times).

Before that ruling, Biden’s steps to begin loosening the reins on migration had been quickly followed by a surge of people heading north, overwhelming the southwest border of the United States. Apprehensions of migrants hit a two-decade high in July, a trend officials fear will continue into the fall.

Concern had already been building inside the Biden administration that the speed of its immigration changes may have encouraged migrants to stream toward the United States, current and former officials said.

In fact, some Biden officials were already talking about reviving Trump’s policy in a limited way to deter migration, said the officials, who have worked on immigration policy but were not authorized to speak publicly about the administration’s internal debates on the issue. Then the Supreme Court order came, providing the Biden administration with the political cover to adopt the policy in some form without provoking as much ire from Democrats who reviled Trump’s border policies.

Now, the officials say, they have an opportunity to take a step back, come up with a more humane version of Trump’s policy and, they hope, reduce the enormous number of people arriving at the border.

“This desire to reverse Trump’s policies and to do so quickly has landed the Biden administration in this predicament, which was not unpredictable and is very sad to watch,” said Alan Bersin, who served as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection under President Barack Obama.

Source: El Pais

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