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Biden steps up family expulsions amid border surge
The United States is expelling migrants to Mexico far from where they are caught crossing the border, according to Reuters witnesses, in a move that circumvents the refusal of authorities in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas who stopped accepting the return of migrant families with younger children.The practice is a sign that President Joe Biden is toughening his approach to the growing humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexican border after his administration’s entreaties for Central American migrants to stay home have failed to stop thousands from heading north.Some families caught at the border in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley said in interviews they were flown to El Paso, Texas, after being held in custody just a few days. From there, they were escorted by U.S. officials to the international bridge to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, around 800-miles (1,300 km) away from where they were first picked up by U.S. border patrol agents. Vilma Peraza traveled from Honduras with her children and is trying to reunite with her husband, who is in the U.S. “They put us on a bus, then on a plane, then on another bus and they didn’t tell us we were coming here. At no time did we sign deportations documents, or anything, nothing, nothing.”Dylan Corbett, the director of the Hope Border Institute, an advocacy organization, said the majority of families expelled to Ciudad Juarez after crossing in south Texas have children under 7 years of age.”But the Biden administration this week is continuing to forcibly return asylum seekers to places like Ciudad Juarez. There’s no explanation for this, this shouldn’t be happening, border communities are ready and willing to stand up and meet the challenge.”A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman said that migrants have been sent to El Paso for processing, as well as other places in the U.S. due to a lack of capacity in the Rio Grande Valley.While Biden officials have said migrant families will be “expelled” to Mexico or their home countries under a Trump-era health order – more than half of the 19,000 family members caught at the border in February were not expelled, with many released into the United States.Sources tell Reuters that under a new program managed by non-profit organizations, some migrant families arriving in the U.S. will be housed in hotels, a move away from for-profit detention centers that have been criticized by Democrats and health experts.