Migrants Stranded in Mexico Await Biden Administration Overhaul

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico—Transition officials for the incoming Biden administration warned on Tuesday that it would take time to unwind the Trump administration’s asylum restrictions, even as they are poised to begin processing some of the 25,000 migrants stranded in Mexico after taking office in January. As a candidate, President-elect Joe Biden vowed to quickly end the program known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, which has forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers arriving at the U.S. border to return to Mexico and wait—sometimes for years—as the American court system processes their requests. But on Tuesday, Biden aides cautioned that ending the program, which they describe as having caused a humanitarian crisis, would take time. “The transformation that is really needed at the border isn’t going to happen overnight,” transition officials told reporters on a conference call.The cautionary note reflects some of the difficult trade-offs the new administration faces when it comes to immigration, including the challenge of rolling back some of the Trump-era restrictions without prompting new waves of migrants to arrive at the border from Central America and elsewhere. This week, two top incoming administration officials, Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s pick for national security adviser, and Susan Rice, domestic policy adviser, told Spain’s news agency EFE that Central Americans shouldn’t view changes to immigration restrictions as an open invitation to come to the border.An estimated 25,000 asylum seekers are waiting in Mexico, often in some of the world’s most dangerous cities. The coronavirus pandemic shut most U.S. courts that process asylum requests, prolonging a wait of months into a year or longer. While tens of thousands of asylum seekers, mostly from Central America, have given up and returned home, many others haven’t, including thousands from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua fleeing oppressive dictatorships....WSJ