Wahsington: Officials worry that a spike in attempts to cross the border will occur when Covid-19 immigration restrictions end on May 11, so the Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it will send more troops to help secure the US-Mexico border.

A total of 1,500 troops will be sent to the border to support Border Patrol agents in the event of a possible surge in border crossings, joining the 2,500 already stationed there.

According to spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, "These 1,500 military personnel will fill critical capability gaps for 90 days, including ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support."

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The strict policy put in place by the previous administration of President Donald Trump to refuse entry to migrants and expel asylum seekers in light of the Covid pandemic emergency will be lifted on May 11 by President Joe Biden's administration.

The Biden administration can no longer justify using Title 42 to stop migration in light of the loosening of coronavirus regulations, including Monday's decision to end vaccination requirements for inbound travellers.

Instead, the administration wants to discourage illegal immigration by using Title 8, which effectively makes crossing the border without authorization a crime and makes obtaining future legal residency impossible.

Asylum seekers and hopeful migrants are now required, according to Washington, to register for interviews with immigration officials from their own nations or nations they pass through on the way to the border.

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The interviews can be scheduled using the new CBP One mobile application. Furthermore, the State Department revealed last week that it would open processing facilities for prospective migrants in other nations, starting with Colombia and Guatemala.

According to US officials, some of those who are approved for emigration by the processing centres will be taken in by Canada and Spain.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, "it's an approach focused on making migration more safe, orderly and humane and advancing the interests of the American people."

In the past two years, migrants, mostly from Central and South America and the Caribbean, have put tremendous pressure on border officials.
Nearly 2.4 million people were stopped at the border by authorities in the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2022, with the majority of them being sent away.

They detained 191,899 individuals without valid immigration documents in March 2023. Following a meeting with US Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the Mexican government announced in a statement on Tuesday that it would "continue to accept back migrants on humanitarian grounds."

Government officials stress that they are not militarising the border despite the controversy surrounding the deployment of US soldiers to the border. The US Customs and Border Enforcement agency, according to the Department of Homeland Security, will be in charge of law enforcement. Instead, the soldiers will assist with backup tasks like border surveillance and IT support.

This assistance will enable DHS law enforcement personnel to focus on their important legal duties, the department said in a statement. The American Civil Liberties Union's Jonathan Blazer, however, continued to object to the deployment.

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"People forced to flee their homes and travel long distances in dangerous conditions should be met with compassion — not military forces," he said. He charged that Biden's new policies amounted to a ban on asylum.

Instead, he said, Biden "should be focused on building a strong, effective, and humane system to welcome people seeking safety." Republicans in Congress planned to call for the continuation of Title 42 on Wednesday, warning of a massive increase in border crossings.

Senator Lindsey Graham issued a statement that said, "If President Biden chooses to continue on the ill-advised path of ending Title 42, it will exacerbate what is already a national security and humanitarian disaster on our southern border."