Migrant families wait near U.S.-Mexico border as clock ticks on asylum protections

Record ID: 1632005

  • Title: Migrant families wait near U.S.-Mexico border as clock ticks on asylum protections
  • Date: 13th August 2021
  • Summary: REYNOSA, MEXICO (AUGUST 12, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS PRAYING WITH ARMS IN AIR MIGRANTS SINGING PRAISE SONGS MIGRANTS LISTENING TO PRAISE MUSIC WITH EYES CLOSED AND HANDS IN AIR WIDE OF DRUM IN FOREGROUND AS MIGRANTS HOLD RELIGIOUS SERVICE SHIRT BEING WASHED BY HAND MIGRANT WOMAN WASHING SHIRT WITH CLOTHING HANGING FROM LINES IN REAR SHIRT BEING WASHED CHILDREN PLAYING AS THEY GO THROUGH EACH OTHERS' OUTSTRETCHED ARMS LITTLE BOYS PLAYING WITH TOPS CHILDREN IN MIGRANT CAMP PLAYING FOOD BEING SERVED LINE OF MIGRANTS WAITING FOR FOOD AS IT IS SERVED MIGRANTS SITTING AND EATING MIGRANT CAMP TENTS
  • Embargoed: 27th August 2021 12:53
  • Keywords: Central American migrants U.S.-Mexico border migrant camp migrants
  • Location: REYNOSA, MEXICO
  • City: REYNOSA, MEXICO
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,South America / Central America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA001EQ45PHJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Here in the northern Mexico city of Reynosa, across the border from Texas, about 1,000 Central American migrants are waiting.
    They spend their days waiting with few options as the U.S. government and non-profit groups wind down a program that allowed for a narrow number of asylum seekers to be exempted for humanitarian reasons from a sweeping border expulsions policy.
    These migrants - primarily Central American families - tried to enter the U.S. but were caught and expelled under the controversial public health policy, known as Title 42, that allows border agents to quickly expel most migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border because of the pandemic.
    They now live in this small Reynosa plaza packed with a tangle of camping tents, clothing lines, and informal community kitchens near the international bridge leading to McAllen, Texas.
    U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has kept the March 2020 public health order in place and recently extended it. In addition to pushing migrants back into northern Mexico under the policy, the administration started flying migrants to Mexico's southern border with Guatemala earlier this month.
    Biden, who took office promising a more humane approach to immigration than his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, implemented a system earlier this year to allow some migrants deemed the most vulnerable to apply for protection in the United States. He also exempted unaccompanied minors from the policy.
    A consortium of non-profit organizations that helped the administration identify at-risk migrants for these exemptions is discontinuing their program at the end of the month, groups involved said. The groups have said they want to see Title 42 ended and always saw the exemptions as temporary.
    David Shahoulian, a top U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official, said in a court declaration that the government "is committed to continuing to use mechanisms" to allow for exemptions, without elaborating. DHS when asked about the end of the exemptions said the agency's "collaboration with organizations referring cases is fluid," without giving more details about future plans.
    According Shahoulian's court declaration, some 16,000 migrants have been given the humanitarian exemptions to date under Biden, who took office on Jan. 20. That is a small fraction of the more than a half million migrants encountered at the border, including families with small children, who have been expelled under Title 42 since February.
    Those numbers include individuals who may have tried to cross multiple times.
    (Production: Go Nakamura, Mana Rabiee, Arlene Eiras)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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