Among the asylum seekers have been there greater than a yr because of immigration guidelines set by former President Trump.
The primary asylum seekers from a Mexican border camp that had grow to be a logo of Trump-era immigration restrictions entered the USA on Thursday beneath a brand new coverage meant to finish the hardships endured by migrants in harmful border cities.
The UN’s Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM) mentioned the preliminary group comprised 27 individuals who had been dwelling within the makeshift camp in Matamoros reverse Brownsville, Texas.
Some residents have lived there for greater than a yr beneath former President Donald Trump’s controversial Migrant Safety Protocols (MPP) programme requiring asylum seekers to attend in Mexico for US court docket hearings.
A brand new course of beneath President Joe Biden will regularly permit hundreds of MPP asylum seekers to await courts’ choices inside the US. Some asylum seekers final week had been permitted to cross into San Ysidro, California.
Francisco Gallardo, who runs a migrant shelter in Matamoros and supplies humanitarian assist on the camp, welcomed the information that the method had begun in Matamoros, however mentioned it ought to have come sooner.
“It’s good that they’re doing it, however sadly coming late,” he mentioned.
Freezing temperatures on the US-Mexico border had made the Matamoros camp a precedence, the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned on Wednesday.
Asylum seekers on the camp have struggled to make sure correct hygiene and to guard themselves from organised crime in a state that is among the most violent in Mexico.
“The camp was an area that had a number of dangers for the migrants,” mentioned Misael Hernandez, a researcher on migration points on the Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
Mexico’s migration institute didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.