From intention to action. No Central American immigrant, alone or in family units, who crosses the Southern border will be detained and released for an asylum application process. Starting next week, the Trump authorities are instructed to capture them and return them either to Mexico or to their countries of origin.
The September 18 @realdonaldtrump post was not part of propaganda, it was the enunciation of a policy for the Southern border that could be seen as a revitalized “zero tolerance” action.
The message reads: NO MORE… No more asylum fraud, no more catch and release, NO MORE ILLEGAL ENTRY IN THE UNITED STATES.
Immediate deportation is the destiny of all those who assume the adventure of entering the United States through the Southern border, a decision that seeks to demoralize immigrants because starting next week they will have no possibilities of staying in the country.
Kevin McAleenan, the U.S. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, was very emphatic on this point. He announced that “with some humanitarian and medical exceptions, DHS will no longer be releasing family units from Border Patrol Stations into the interior” of the country.
Authorities define family units or families as individuals accompanied by a minor, parent or legal guardian.
The official pointed out that this seeks to mitigate the “legal loopholes” that act as a “pull and push factors” for undocumented families crossing the border, expressed a statement from his office that picked up parts of the speech of the Acting Secretary at the Council of Foreign Relations.
Specifically, the border protocol established lon ago as a standard procedure that undocumented families detained by the Border Patrol on U.S. soil after crossing the Southern border without papers be released to report to authorities for asylum.
According to the DHS statement, if migrant family units do not claim fear of return, they will be quickly returned to their country of origin.
If they do claim fear of returning, they will be generally be returned to Mexico according to the Migrant Protection (MPP).
The U.S. MPP policy, better known as “Remain in Mexico,” allows the United States to return to the neighboring country those undocumented immigrants who arrive at the border and seek asylum (no matter where they come from) to wait there for court dates in the U.S. to pursue their claims for protection, a process that can take years.
According to DHS, detentions on the Mexican border “have hit record levels this year”.
On September 9, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that 50,693 people were detained at the border with Mexico in August compared to 71,982 last July.
Of this total, 25,057 were family members, while the arrests of single adults amounted to 21,907 in August and those of unaccompanied minors to 3,729.
In May, the total number of people arrested and non-admitted persons was 144,255, which was higher than the monthly statistics for the last five years. In that month, 84,490 families were detained.
Translated by: José Espinoza
Noticias Newswire
