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Biden faces pressure as US sets new course on immigration

Published:Monday | February 15, 2021 | 2:53 PM
In this January 20, 2021, file photo, President Joe Biden signs his first executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Thousands of people are waiting to claim asylum and more come each day, falsely believing they will be able to enter the US now that former President Donald Trump is out of office. Biden has made major changes to his predecessor's hardline immigration policies, but he hasn't lifted the major restrictions to people seeking asylum as he faces pressures from all sides. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — After a weeklong bus ride from Honduras, Isabel Osorio Medina arrived in northern Mexico with the hope President Joe Biden would make it easier for people like him to get into the United States.

“It seems the new president wants to help migrants,” Osorio said as he got ready to check in to a cheap hotel in downtown Tijuana before heading to the US.

“They’re saying he is going to help, but I don’t know for sure how much is true or not.”

The 63-year-old is among thousands of people who have come to the US-Mexico border with the hope they will be able to ask for asylum and make their way into America now that former President Donald Trump is no longer in office.

While Biden has taken some major steps in his first weeks in office to reverse Trump’s hardline immigration policies, his administration hasn’t lifted some of the most significant barriers to asylum-seekers.

In fact, it’s discouraging people from coming to the country, hoping to avoid what happened under both Trump and former President Barack Obama — border agents getting overwhelmed by migrants, including many Central Americans with children.

“Now is not the time to come,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a recent briefing, “and the vast majority of people will be turned away.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken struck a similar tone on February 6 as he announced official steps to end Trump-era agreements with Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala that required many asylum-seekers to seek refuge in one of those countries instead of the US.

“To be clear, these actions do not mean that the US border is open,” Blinken said.

“While we are committed to expanding legal pathways for protection and opportunity here and in the region, the United States is a country with borders and laws that must be enforced.”

That message hasn’t reached everyone.

More people have been arriving at an encampment in Matamoros, Mexico, a dangerous city just south of the Texas border where hundreds of asylum-seekers have been waiting under Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” programme.

It’s possible even more may come after the Biden administration announced Friday that it would slowly allow an estimated 25,000 people to enter the US as their cases are reviewed.

The first wave is expected on February 19.

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