Asylum seekers from a migrant camp of at least 700 in Matamoros, Mexico, just across the river from Brownsville, Texas, have been filing into the United States after President Joe Biden overturned his predecessor Donald Trump's tough immigration policies, the Daily Mail has reported.
A week ago, the Biden administration started allowing those in the Migrant Protection Protocols program to enter the U.S. to pursue their court cases, reversing Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program he started two years ago that has sent more than 69,000 people back over the border while waiting for their cases to be processed.
Migrants are now hopeful that by crossing into the U.S., their cases will be dealt with more quickly, and it will be difficult to deport them under asylum rules.
Biden is attempting to balance pressure from immigration advocates to completely get rid of Trump’s hardline policies at the same time there is concern about migrants arriving at the border in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
“There are no good choices here,” Biden said over the weekend. “The only other options are to send kids back, which is what the prior administration did.”
But as the arriving migrants empty out one tent city, the increased hope that it is possible to enter the U.S. has led migrants to set up another such encampment near the border.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.