The United States government plans to construct regional processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala to decrease the influx of migrants to the southern border. These centers will screen migrants for eligibility under the US Refugee Admissions Program and other humanitarian and labor avenues.
The Biden administration is also in talks with other Latin American countries and may announce new processing centers in the future. Spain and Canada have agreed to accept recommendations from the regional centers.
Officials stated that no single country in the region can solve the issue of millions of displaced people on its own, and migration impacts every country in the area.
Title 42 orders, which banned migrants from obtaining asylum and allowed border officers to quickly return many of them to Mexico, are set to expire on May 11. Once they are lifted, immigration officers will resume processing individuals under the long-established jurisdiction of Title 8, which has harsher penalties for deportations, including possible criminal prosecution and a five-year ban on readmission.
The Department of Homeland Security will significantly boost the use of expedited removal to process migrants’ petitions for relief within days.
Additionally, US Customs and Border Protection has built phone booths and peaceful locations to border facilities to facilitate attorney calls and asylum interviews.
The administration will increase the number of available appointments through the CBP One mobile application and launch a family reunion program for individuals from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, including Colombians, and update existing reunification programs for those from Cuba and Haiti.
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