The Biden administration is devising a strategy for the possible arrival of tens of thousands more migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border after the anticipated end of COVID-19 restrictions next month, scrambling to find potential holding centres, speed up deportations and increase processing of refugees abroad, Reuters reports.
The administration is expected to announce a package of new measures as soon as this week that would include stepping up the currently small number of Latin Americans admitted through the U.S. refugee settlement program, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
At the same time, U.S. officials are expanding holding capacity for migrants at the border while piloting faster asylum screenings. One yet-unreported option under discussion is to process migrants at Fort Bliss, a military base near El Paso, Texas, said two U.S. officials and a third person familiar with the matter.
White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan denied the base was being considered and the Pentagon said it had not received a request to use it for migrant processing.
The Biden plans aim to address a likely increase in unauthorized immigration after COVID border restrictions that have been in place since 2020 are set to end on May 11, barring any last-minute legal or congressional intervention.
The broader COVID public health emergency is scheduled to terminate on that date, undercutting the rationale for the restrictions, known as Title 42.
Biden, a Democrat who announced his 2024 re-election campaign this week, has struggled with record numbers of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and gradually toughened his approach to enforcement. Republicans have blamed Biden for abandoning hardline policies championed by Republican former President Donald Trump, currently the leading candidate for the party's presidential nomination.
The expansion of refugee processing in Latin America would come as the Biden administration has yet to restore refugee admissions after they were slashed under Trump.
The Biden administration's latest border plan focuses on a soon-to-be-finalized regulation that would block most migrants crossing the border illegally from claiming asylum if they passed through another country without seeking refuge or failed to use lawful pathways to the United States.
For the rule to function as an effective deterrent, U.S. authorities would detain people who cross the border and quickly process them for deportation.
