U.S. to set up migrant centers in Guatemala, Colombia to curb border arrivals when Title 42 orders end

The United States will establish regional processing centers for migrants in Colombia and Guatemala in an effort to reduce arrivals at the southern border after a pandemic-era policy ends next month, Biden administration officials announced Thursday.

The administration is also in talks with additional Latin American countries about the possibility of establishing more processing centers, said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Several thousand migrants will be screened at the centers each month for eligibility under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and other humanitarian and labor pathways. At a news conference with Mayorkas, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said he expects many more people to stay near the regional centers and wait for their chance to seek legal protections.

Blinken said Spain and Canada will accept referrals from the regional centers.

“Migration is the definition of a challenge that no country can solve alone,” he said.

The announcement comes two weeks ahead of the expected end of Title 42 orders, which were implemented amid the COVID-19 pandemic and prevented migrants from requesting asylum, allowing border agents to return many of them swiftly back to Mexico.

When Title 42 orders lift May 11, immigration agents will return to processing people under the longstanding authority of Title 8. Deportations under Title 8 carry stiffer consequences, including potential criminal prosecution and barring people from reentry for at least five years.

DHS will significantly expand the use of expedited removal to process migrants’ claims for relief and deport those who don’t qualify within days or a few weeks, Mayorkas said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has added phone booths and private spaces to border facilities to facilitate attorney calls and asylum interviews.

Mayorkas said the agency has expanded detention capacity for single adults and will use digital monitoring methods for other adults and families, including GPS monitors, curfews and check-ins.

Mexico will continue accepting up to 30,000 deported migrants after use of Title 42 ends, Mayorkas said.

Administration officials are working to finalize by May 11 a new rule that would make migrants ineligible for asylum if they enter the U.S. without permission and fail to apply for protection in another country on the way. Under the plan, some could still request asylum at an official port of entry but would largely be required to do so using CBP One, a phone application that migrants complain has been riddled with technical glitches and offers limited appointments that fill up within minutes.

“Let me be clear: Our border is not open and will not open after May 11,” Mayorkas said.

Mayorkas said DHS will expand available appointments through CBP One after the Title 42 policy expires.

Citizens of Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba can apply for lawful entry to the U.S. if they have a financial sponsor as long as they do not cross the Panama, Mexico or U.S. land borders without authorization. Mayorkas said Thursday that migrants from those countries who are interdicted at sea will become ineligible for the lawful entry program.

Federal officials say the measures offset record arrivals of migrants at the southern border, pointing to a 95% decline in encounters of people from those four countries between ports of entry.

DHS will also establish a family reunification program for people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and include Colombians, Mayorkas said, as well as update existing reunification programs for people from Cuba and Haiti. Those programs allow people with family-based green card petitions to enter the U.S. under temporary humanitarian parole while they wait for those applications to be processed.

Officials said the migrant processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia will be run by “international partners” aided by U.S. personnel. Migrants will be able to make an appointment by phone to visit the nearest center before traveling.

Immigrant advocates expressed support for the migrant processing centers and family reunification programs. But organizations including the International Refugee Assistance Project criticized what they saw as a lack of detail with regard to funding and implementation of the plans, citing steep backlogs and long processing times for refugee admissions.

“Expanding family reunification parole pathways and refugee processing for displaced people in the Americas is long overdue, but we cannot ignore that the Biden administration is proposing a Faustian bargain by simultaneously seeking to implement a Trump-era asylum ban at the U.S-Mexico border, effectively slamming the door shut on countless others in need,” said IRAP policy director Sunil Varghese.

Department of Homeland Security officials have been planning for the end of Title 42 orders for the past year.

Last week, the U.S., along with the governments of Panama and Colombia, launched a 60-day campaign to halt migration through the dangerous Darien Gap, a dense jungle controlled by gangs that nearly 90,000 migrants have traveled through in the first three months of this year alone.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report.