Washington-. The U.S. government is today considering lifting asylum restrictions put in place under the pretense of preventing the spread of Covid-19 and anticipates an increase in immigrant arrivals at the southern border.
The arrival of undocumented immigrants at the Mexico-United States border could reach 18,000 a day, breaking last year’s record levels, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS, for its English acronym) official estimated.
Around 7,000 people are currently attempting to enter the northern country every day, and border officials arrested two million migrants in 2021, DHS said in statements to local press.
The government agency is preparing for the potential migration avalanche if the White House decides to disable Title 42, through which they refuse entry to most asylum seekers on the grounds of preventing the spread of Covid-19.
Under this order, which went into effect during Republican Donald Trump’s administration (2017-2021) and was upheld by President Joe Biden, border officials can “expel” migrants to Mexico in hours or quickly send them to other countries without permission do Opportunity to apply for asylum in the United States.
Health experts, immigrant rights advocates and some Democrats believe the policy is illegally shutting down access to asylum and scientific evidence does not support its stated goal of slowing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Despite promises to reverse his predecessor’s more restrictive immigration policies, Biden has faced widespread criticism for maintaining this measure, which the president says is not up to him but to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For their part, Republicans are using the growing influx of immigrants to attack their opponents ahead of November’s general election, in which Democrats risk losing control of Congress.