US to open foreign centers in bid to stop migration surge

WASHINGTON (AP) —The Biden administration announced on Thursday plans to open migration centre's in Guatemala and Colombia for asylum seekers heading to the US-Mexico border in a bid to slow what's expected to be a surge of migrants as pandemic-era immigration restrictions end.

The migration centre's are part of an intense effort to try to prevent thousands of people from making the often-dangerous journey to the southern border when the restrictions end May 11.

But it is unclear whether the processing centre's and other measures, including expedited processing for asylum seekers and crackdowns on human smuggling networks, will do much to slow the tide of migrants fleeing from countries marred by political and economic strife.

“This is a hemispheric challenge that demands hemispheric solutions,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a news conference as he outlined upcoming steps ahead of the May 11 deadline.

Mayorkas also warned that migrants and the human smugglers should not interpret the upcoming deadline to mean that the border is wide open: ”Let me be clear, our border is not open and will not be open after May 11.”

The Biden administration, under attack by Republicans eager to paint the border as wide open under his leadership, has repeatedly warned that the end of the pandemic-era immigration restrictions does not mean that migrants should try to come to the US as they've also sought to open other avenues for migration.

Immigration has vexed Biden throughout his presidency, with top GOP leaders hammering him as soft on border security and immigrant advocates, saying he's abandoning humanitarian efforts with stricter measures meant to keep migrants from entering illegally.

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