The U.S. unveils plan to discourage border crossings when pandemic restrictions lift

The U.S. will establish new immigration processing centers in Latin America, Biden administration officials announced today, as part of a broader plan to discourage migrants from making the dangerous journey to the southern border.

With pandemic border restrictions set to lift in just two weeks, the administration is rolling out a host of new measures aimed at discouraging migrants from crossing the border illegally.

Those plans include new processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia that are intended to help migrants fleeing Central and South America seek lawful pathways to the U.S. At the same time, the administration says it will apply tougher enforcement measures for those who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the new measures in a joint press conference this morning in Washington, D.C.

“These centers will take a hugely important step to prevent people from making the dangerous journey to the border by providing a much safer legal option to migrate that they can pursue in and from their own countries,” Blinken said.

Immigration authorities are bracing for a jump in the number of migrants attempting to seek asylum in the U.S. when the pandemic restrictions known as Title 42 end.

“We know smugglers will seek to take advantage of the end of Title 42, and that the first few weeks will be challenging,” Mayorkas said. “Let me be clear: Our border is not open.”

The Title 42 restrictions, first put in place by the Trump administration in March 2020, have been used more than 2 million times to quickly expel migrants without giving them a chance to seek asylum.

The Biden administration says it expects to stop enforcing the restrictions on May 11th. The White House has tried to end Title 42 before, only to be blocked in court by a coalition of mostly Republican-led states that have sought to extend the restrictions.