A group of 28 migrants wait to be processed by United States Border Patrol agents, after being apprehended trying to cross the border undetected, in advance of the planned May 11 ending of COVID-19 border restrictions known as Title 42, that have been in place since 2020, in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, U.S. on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON--The United States will ramp up deportations while also expanding legal pathways for would-be migrants as it braces for a possible spike in illegal border crossings when COVID-19 restrictions are set to end next month, U.S. officials said on Thursday. The U.S. will double or triple the number of deportation flights to some countries and aim to process migrants crossing the border illegally "in a matter of days," the U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a fact sheet about their plans. At the same time, the U.S. will expand legal pathways for migrants, encouraging them to apply for refugee resettlement or other forms of entry at two new processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia without having to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border. The centers, with the support of the United Nations, aim to screen 5,000 to 6,000 migrants each month as the United States has pledged to accept more refugees from within the Western Hemisphere. Canada and Spain have also said they would accept migrants through the centers, U.S. officials said. The centers will also process family reunification applications, a programme already available to Cubans and Haitians that will now be expanded to nationals of Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, U.S. officials said. The programme allows certain migrants with U.S. relatives to enter and work legally while they await their U.S. visas. The mix of immigration enforcement measures and new legal ways to enter the country is part of U.S. President Joe Biden's plan to address a possible increase in illegal immigration when COVID-19 border restrictions, in place since 2020, are expected to end on May 11. Biden, a Democrat, has struggled politically with record numbers of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally and gradually toughened his approach to border enforcement.
