by Andrea Shallal and Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) – The United States will continue to use restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic that allow it to swiftly deport Cuban, Nicaraguan and Haitian migrants caught illegally crossing the border into Mexico, it said the American president announced on Thursday.
Up to 30,000 citizens of these countries and Venezuela will still be allowed to enter the United States each month, provided they fly there, Joe Biden added.
“This new process is regulated, safe and humane,” he said, adding that his message to migrants without an American sponsor has been, “Don’t just show up at the border.”
The US government is trying to stem the record number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border and address the political and humanitarian challenges it poses.
“These decisions are not going to solve the problems in our immigration system,” Joe Biden said, adding that they “will help a lot.”
According to the US president, a comprehensive plan on immigration has been presented to Congress, but Republicans are not willing to consider it.
A senior Biden administration official said the president’s planned immigration policy includes new legal avenues for immigration.
“The legal pathways for immigration that we are presenting today are generous,” the official explained. “Bypassing them, however, will have serious consequences.”
The issue of immigration will be at the center of the summit that will bring together Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on January 10 in Mexico City. (Report Andrea Shalal, Ted Hesson, Doina Chiacu, Matt Spetalnick and Steve Holland; French version Camille Raynaud, narrated by Nicolas Delame)
