The US will ship 1,500 additional troopss on their border with Mexico, as a Pentagon representative announced yesterday Tuesday, and this because next week the deadline expires controversial health measure that allows for the immediate deportation of illegal immigrants who cross the country’s land borders.

The authorities they fear an increase in immigrant arrivals at their borders, after the lifting of this measure, known as Title 42.

“At the request of the Department of Homeland Security” the US Secretary of Defense “authorized the temporary deployment of 1,500 additional troops to augment Border Patrol efforts on the southwest border,” said Brigadier General Pat Ryder.

For 90 days, they will support the border police mainly in the matter of surveillance. “Military personnel will not be directly involved in law enforcement activities,” Ryder added.

They will be added to the 2,500 troops already helping border police and other agencies prepare for a surge in migrant arrivals.

The government of Mexico announced yesterday that “it will continue to accept the return of immigrants on a humanitarian basis”, in a statement issued after a meeting with Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Deputy Security Advisor to US President Joe Biden.

Title 42 was a measure linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and was implemented in 2020 under the presidency of Donald Trump. It allowed the immediate deportation of undocumented immigrants, even potential asylum seekers. Expires May 11. flow

Faced with the influx of irregular immigrants, who come mainly from Central and Latin America, the US announced last week a series of measures.

Immigrants will now have to make an appointment to be interviewed by US immigration before arriving in the US. For this reason, an application for mobile phones, CBP One, has also been created.

The management of asylum seekers or of refugees is done from centers in Colombia and Guatemala. Canada and Spain have agreed to accept some of the refugees who get the green light from those centers, according to US officials.

The deployment of additional troops was criticized by Jonathan Blazer of the ACLU.

“People who have been forced to flee their homes and make dangerous, difficult journeys for a chance to seek legal protection in the US should be met with compassion, not soldiers,” he complained, accusing Biden of measures it takes amount to a ban on the right to asylum.

The US president “should focus on creating a reliable, efficient and humane system to screen and receive people seeking safety,” he added.

Immigration is one politically explosive issue in the US.

Republicans have been constantly attacking Biden, whom they accuse of turning the border with Mexico into “a colander.”

Republicans politicians are going to concede press conference today to ask the US president to “maintain Title 42”, stressing that repealing the measure “will exacerbate what is already a humanitarian disaster and a national security disaster on our southern border”.

Besides, as soon as he was elected to the presidency of the USA, Biden stopped the construction of the wall on the border with Mexico.

From May 11 another measure, Title 8, will come into force, the Minister of Internal Security Alejandro Mayorkas had recently stated. This provides for immediate deportation of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border with Mexico. They will also be barred from entering the US for five years.

“To be clear, the borders are not open and will not be open after May 11,” according to Mayorkas.

During the previous fiscal year, which ended on September 30, 2022, approximately 2.4 million people were apprehended at the US border and most were deported.

On March were arrested 191,899 people without legal documents.