President Joe Biden has a long list of immigration reforms, many of them dealing with revoking immigration orders implemented during the Trump administration. One such reform on Biden’s chopping block is to end the asylum deals made with Central American countries in 2019.
The agreement with Guatemala was signed in 2019, just as similar pacts were negotiated with El Salvador and Honduras. This was an attempt by Trump to force other countries in the region to help the United States stop a surge of asylum-seekers arriving at the U.S. southern border by agreeing to take them in for prolonged waits.
The agreements were sharply criticized by human rights groups because many of the asylum-seekers fleeing violence from gangs in the three countries were being sent right back to the same impoverished countries.
Earlier this week, as part of his review of immigration protocols, Biden ordered a review of asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border, part of the administration’s plan to make the whole immigration system less restrictive.
One measure up for review is the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a Trump program also known as “Remain in Mexico.” The MPP order created a chaotic situation on the Mexico side of the border, where tens of thousands of asylum-seekers were forced into over-crowded camps to await a hearing.
The encampments where asylum-seekers live are in wildly insecure border towns like Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros, both in Tamaulipas state, which the U.S. State Department has dubbed a “Do Not Travel” zone for American citizens.
According to The Sun-Sentinel, in a recent survey conducted by Doctors Without Borders, nearly 80 percent of migrants in the camps have reported being victims of violence.
