Mexico City. Since Wednesday, the United States began returning migrants to the Mexican city of Tijuana in a reboot of a Trump-era program that forces asylum seekers to wait for US court hearings in Mexico.
The United States and Mexico agreed last December to relaunch the controversial Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) program, also known as “Stay in Mexico,” according to a federal court order issued in August.
President Joe Biden terminated the MPP shortly after his January inauguration, as he sought to pursue what he called a more humane approach to immigration. But a federal judge in Texas ruled that Biden’s action did not follow proper procedure and in August ordered the reinstatement of the program following a lawsuit filed by the states of Missouri and Texas, which alleged that the termination of the protocols had led to an increase in the crisis on the border with Mexico.
The scheme was first resumed in December at the international crossing that connects El Paso, Texas, with Ciudad Juárez. Some 224 people have been returned to Mexico so far under the relaunch of the MPP, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Two more migrants were returned to Tijuana, off California, on Wednesday after the US announced it extended the program to the crossing with San Diego on Monday.
The migrant rights group Al Otro Lado told Reuters the two men were Colombian citizens.
Asylum seekers do not have legal representation
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has questioned the restart of the program, warning that migrants face the risk of kidnapping, rape and extortion in the dangerous border cities of Mexico.
For their part, immigrant rights groups denounced that asylum seekers currently face great obstacles in obtaining legal representation in the United States and defending their cases.
The complaints came after two days of hearings in an immigration court in El Paso, Texas, where the first asylum seekers presented their cases after being referred to the “Stay in Mexico” program.
Refugees International’s Yael Schacher told news organization El Paso Matters that “the vast majority of people (at the hearings on Monday and Tuesday in El Paso) are not represented.”
The activist said that of the 82 asylum seekers who came forward in the two days, only five had legal representation.
Underrepresentation means that applicants will complete their own applications on their own with minimal assistance, and will represent themselves.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx