The governments of Joe Biden and Andrés Manuel López Obrador have reached an agreement to reactivate the program Stay in mexico, a plan promoted by former President Donald Trump that forces migrants who applied for asylum in the United States to wait for their case to be resolved on the other side of the border. The Ministry of Foreign Relations has assured this Thursday that Washington informed them that “it will address all concerns of a humanitarian nature” of the so-called Migrant Protection Program.
The Mexican president agreed during the mandate of the republican magnate, whose immigration policy was marked by intransigence and a heavy hand, to apply this plan. Now the Foreign Ministry highlights among the changes “greater resources for shelters and international organizations, protection for vulnerable groups, consideration of local security conditions and the capacity of shelter and care of the National Institute of Migration, as well as the application of measures against covid-19, such as medical check-ups and the availability of vaccines for migrants ”. By virtue of this review, a statement states, “the Government of Mexico has decided that, for humanitarian reasons and temporarily, it will not return to their countries of origin certain migrants who have an appointment to appear before an immigration judge in the United States. to request asylum in that country ”.
The Department of Homeland Security has reported that the agreement includes a commitment that the procedures will generally end within six months of the return of a migrant seeking asylum to Mexico. The readaptation of the program also includes new facilities to access and communicate with lawyers and establishes exceptions for “particularly vulnerable” people. “The United States Government,” he adds in a statement, “will work closely with the Government of Mexico to ensure that there are safe havens available for those enrolled in the program,” that returnees have a transfer to and from the border posts and that asylum seekers can obtain work permits, medical care and other services in Mexico.
The plan, which is restarted by a US court ruling after the Supreme Court ordered it to be resumed in August. The Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, had stated on several occasions that the program Stay in mexico it has “structural failures, imposed unjustifiable human costs”, it detracted resources and personnel from other priorities of the Administration and “did not address the root causes of irregular migration. The governments of Biden and López Obrador are working to improve collaboration to alleviate the migratory flow, especially in the northern triangle of Central America.
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