‘Joe Biden is going to help all of us’…
‘Let us in, Joe!’
Biden team to migrant caravan — Don’t come, you won’t get in immediately
WASHINGTON — As thousands of Honduran migrants make their way to the U.S. border, the incoming Biden administration, just days from taking office, has a message: Don’t come now.
President-elect Joe Biden has promised an end to the immigration policies of the Trump administration, which focused on building a border wall and restricting eligibility for asylum.
But those promises may be put to the test in the new government’s first days. If would-be illegals from Central America perceive that now is the time to travel to the U.S., the southern border could quickly be overwhelmed before systems are put in place to handle the influx.
A senior Biden transition team official said the perception that the Biden administration will be able to allow all arriving asylum seekers to enter the U.S. to make their claim on day one is false.
“The situation at the border isn’t going to be transformed overnight,” the transition official told NBC News in an exclusive interview. But the official declined to say when asylum seekers might be able to come to the U.S. and whether they will be detained as they await a court hearing.
On Friday night, about 2,000 members of the caravan pushed past Guatemalan authorities and entered Guatemala without showing documentation or negative COVID screenings, the Associated Press reported.
The caravan may arrive at the U.S. border in the coming weeks.
Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the administration’s immigration hawk, told reporters shortly before the 2020 election that Biden’s immigration policies would result in “open borders” and the end of America being a “sovereign nation.”
Prior to the recent caravan, there were already tens of thousands of migrants who had been stopped at the U.S. border by the Trump administration and told to wait in Mexico until their court dates to present their asylum cases. Many have given up and returned south, but thousands remain in poor conditions in Northern Mexico waiting to enter the U.S.
The senior Biden official said those who have been waiting at the border, along with other vulnerable populations, will be a priority for processing and entry, rather than those who have recently arrived.
The official said migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. to claim asylum in the first few weeks of the new administration “need to understand they’re not going to be able to come into the United States immediately.”
The official also emphasized that any immigration legislation proposed by the Biden administration will be for undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S., not those who are considering arriving now.
Batons and tear gas