Saturday, February 27, 2021

California to spend $28M to help arriving asylum-seekers

California is freeing up as much as $28 million to help immigrants arriving from Mexico and being released in the U.S. until their court dates, a sharp contrast from other border states that have emerged as foes of President Joe Biden's immigration policies.

Last week, the Biden administration began allowing people into the United States who had been forced to wait south of the border under Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy.

The first asylum-seekers waiting in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, home to a migrant camp with squalid conditions, were processed for entry Thursday in Brownsville, Texas.

While most people are quickly expelled without an opportunity to seek asylum under pandemic powers that Trump instituted and Biden kept in place, limited releases in the U.S. have raised financial and humanitarian concerns in some border cities.

"There's no plan of action once Border Patrol releases migrants in city centers from being detained," Bruno Lozano, mayor of the South Texas city of Del Rio, said in an interview.

The Border Patrol resumed releasing migrants in Del Rio on Feb. 20 after the cold passed.

Lozano said Friday that border agents have resumed releasing people in Del Rio and nearby cities.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/California-to-spend-28M-to-help-arriving-15983361.php 

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