SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities have seen a 97% drop in illegal border crossings by migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela since Mexico began accepting those expelled under a pandemic-era order, it said Wednesday Biden administration.
The announcement comes a day after Texas and 19 other Republican-led states filed a lawsuit to stop widespread humanitarian parole for citizens of those four countries who apply online, fly to the United States and find a financial sponsor.
The administration said Jan. 5 it would take up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela for two years with a work permit. At the same time, Mexico agreed to take the same amount from those countries that enter the US illegally and are expelled under Section 42, which denies them the right to seek asylum, with the stated goal of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The number of border crossings by migrants from these four countries has increased dramatically, and there is no easy way to quickly return them to their countries.
“These expanded border security measures are working,” Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mallorcas said. “It is incomprehensible that some states that could benefit from these highly effective enforcement measures are seeking to block them and cause more illegal migration on our southern border.”
U.S. authorities stopped migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela an average of 115 times a day along the Mexican border during the seven-day period ending Tuesday, compared to an average of 3,367 per day during the week ending December 11.
The Texas-led lawsuit aims to stop large-scale humanitarian parole for these four countries, which could be 360,000 people a year. He was assigned to U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton in Corpus Christi, nominated by Donald Trump, who ruled against President Joe Biden over who should be given deportation priority.
“This illegal amnesty program, which will invite hundreds of thousands of foreigners to the US every year, will only exacerbate the immigration crisis,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a press release.
By law, the National Security Service can parole migrants to the United States “only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or in connection with a significant public benefit.”
So far, 1,700 Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians have arrived in the United States on humanitarian parole under policy changes announced this month, and thousands more from the three countries have been approved, administration officials told reporters in a conference call on conditions of anonymity. The number of Venezuelans was not immediately available.
Roberto Velasco, director of Mexico’s Department of Foreign Affairs for North American Affairs, echoed Mallorcas’ words that the recent changes were successful.
“The measures announced by the United States have begun to produce important results, with two goals: to open routes for legal migration, and to significantly reduce the risks associated with illegal migration flows,” he wrote on Tuesday in the Mexican newspaper Excelsior.
The administration said last week that a surge in arrivals of Cubans and Nicaraguans in December resulted in the highest number of illegal crossings recorded in any month of a Biden presidency. Authorities stopped migrants 251,487 times along the Mexican border in December, up 7% from November and 40% from the same period a year earlier.
Homeland Security said Wednesday that January numbers are “on track” to their lowest level since February 2021, Biden’s first full month in office.
