The Biden administration formally ended the Trump-era policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico until their court dates in the United States, according to a memo issued by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
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The Biden administration formally ended the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program, which had forced tens of thousands of Central American asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico in often dangerous conditions for their claims to be processed.
US Customs and Border Protection has continued to encounter around 40,000 migrants a week at the US-Mexico border, continuing a pace similar to that of the past couple of months, according to data reviewed by CNN.
The American Civil Liberties Union is urging the Biden administration to provide Covid-19 vaccine access to immigrants in detention, citing the rapid spread of coronavirus in congregate settings, according to a letter sent to the Department of Homeland Security and obtained by CNN.
President Biden is under mounting pressure from both the left and right on immigration, the issue on which his polling numbers are worse than any other. Progressives and human rights groups want to see Biden move faster to dismantle the last vestiges of former President Trump’s approach — particularly in relation to a controversial measure that allows U.S. authorities to turn back would-be refugees on public health grounds.
The head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says he expects “significant changes” to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a Biden administration review of the agency is completed in the months ahead.
On May 13, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress he would be “taking action very quickly” on immigrant detention centers. Within a week, he ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to cut contracts with two detention centers that have been the targets of extended organizing and community-led shutdown campaigns.
Under new Biden administration rules curtailing immigration enforcement, ICE carried out fewer than 3,000 deportations last month, the lowest level on record. The agency’s 6,000 officers currently average one arrest every two months.
A new report from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) watchdog found the Trump administration failed to give some parents the option of reuniting with their children before deporting them under its family separation policy.
The Biden administration on Saturday granted humanitarian protection for Haitians in the United States, allowing an estimated 100,000 people to apply to remain lawfully in the US, according to the Department of Homeland Security and an administration official.
