After the Trump administration has finalized humanitarian agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, Joe Biden has signaled that he would effectively back out of these agreements and replace them with new ones that would, according to Mark Mordan (acting Chief of Customs and Border Protection), result in “waves of attempted illegal entries.”
The agreements enable officials to take in asylum-seekers and place them in one of three counties. According to Morgan, “These humanitarian agreements demonstrate the Trump administration’s unwavering efforts to secure America’s borders from illegal entry by working closely with our regional partners. Without these agreements, we will likely see waves of attempted illegal entries similar to 2019.”
The Biden team has said that they will not immediately halt these existing agreements. Rather, they will replace them over the course of months, choosing policies that focus on “family-unification.” Biden’s Security Advisor clarified these statements saying, “As currently written, the outgoing administration’s so-called ‘asylum cooperative agreements’ deny the right to apply for asylum in the United States to desperate asylum seekers rather than helping create alternative pathways to protection.”
To many, including Mark Morgan, the Biden team’s comments signal that they want to send an invitation to illegal immigrants.
