EL PASO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th February, 2021) Shelters in the United States and Mexico are preparing to receive large numbers of migrants at the southern US border due to potential changes in immigration policy under the Biden administration, Hope Border Institute Deputy Director Marisa Limon told Sputnik.
Last week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to end Trump's family separation policy. US authorities over the weekend said they are already seeing large groups of parents and children crossing the border, according to The Washington Post.
"There are efforts underway on both sides of the border to receive larger numbers of people due to potential changes in immigration policy," Limon said.
The immigrant advocacy group in the border town of El Paso, Texas, helps provide support to migrants arriving in the neighboring city Juarez, Mexico.
Limon said Juarez has seen an increase in the number of migrants arriving at "filter locations," which are sites where newly arrived migrants can quarantine and seek medical attention if they have been exposed to the novel coronavirus.
Shelters are likely to see an increase in migrant guests soon, but they are not yet at full capacity, Limon said.
Biden is expected to ease even more strict Trump-era immigration policies that were designed to deter the flow of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.
The US president recently ordered a review of the current US immigration policies and a temporary stop to the so-called "Remain in Mexico" asylum program, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which required asylum-seeking migrants to temporarily return to Mexico for the duration of their immigration proceedings. More than 60,000 asylum-seeking migrants have been affected by the rule.
Last week, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it has seen a steady increase in border encounters since April 2020, which has caused some facilities to reach maximum safe holding capacity. CBP data shows that more than 70,000 migrants have been apprehended at the US-Mexico border each month from October to December. The numbers for January will be released later this month.
In January, a caravan of some 4,500 Honduran migrants crossed over into Guatemala, scrambling to escape gang-related violence, poverty and unemployment in their home country, a situation which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Guatemalan authorities have said that they were not going to allow in people who violated migration rules.
