Migrants in Mexico wait on Biden immigration policies

Migrants living in Mexico who have been waiting for a chance to enter the United States are hopeful they may finally be able to cross the border.

We feel very good," said Pedro Ruiz Tamayo, a Cuban migrant who has been waiting in Mexico for his asylum hearing in the United States for two years.

"I can't believe that President Biden made such a fair decision."

Latin America's migrants - from the Caribbean, South America and Central America - are on the move again.

After a year of pandemic-induced paralysis, those in daily contact with migrants believe the flow north could return to the high levels seen in late 2018 and early 2019. The difference is that it would happen during a pandemic.

The protective health measures imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, including drastically reduced bedspace at shelters along the route, mean fewer safe spaces for migrants in transit.

"Increased exposure, increased risk, increased vulnerability to which the migrant population is historically accustomed, and with the pandemic, the situation has worsened, " said Antonino Caradonna, a coordinator for Doctors without Borders's migrant project.

Some shelters remain closed by local health authorities and almost all have had to reduce the number of migrants they can assist.

Applications for visas, asylum or any other official paperwork are delayed by the government's reduced capacity due to the pandemic to process them.

Some migrants have expressed hope of a friendlier reception from the new U.S. administration or started moving when some borders were reopened.

Others are being driven by two major hurricanes that ravaged Central America in November and desperation deepened by the economic impact of the pandemic.

President Joe Biden's administration has taken steps toward rolling back some of the harshest policies of ex-President Donald Trump, but a policy remains allowing U.S. border officials to immediately send back almost anyone due to the pandemic.

The U.S. government is concerned that the more hopeful message could set off a rush for the border and says it will take time to implement new policies.

The number of people apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in January was more than double that of the same month last year and 20,000 above January 2019.

This week families have been seen crossing from Ciudad Juarez and turning themselves over to Border Patrol in hopes to applying for asylum.

Last week, the Biden administration announced that it would slowly start processing the approximately 25,000 asylum seekers who were forced to wait out their process in Mexico under Trump. That was scheduled to begin Friday at three border crossings.

Mexico has so far said it will continue enforcing an "orderly" migration, which in practice has meant trying to contain migrants in the south since Trump threatened tariffs on all Mexican imports in 2019.

On Tuesday, Mexico's National Immigration Institute said in a statement that authorities had made 50 raids on freight train lines since Jan. 25 in southern and central Mexico, detaining nearly 1,200 migrants.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador warned migrants recently to not be fooled by traffickers who promise that the U.S. will open its doors.

(Image credit: AP)