The Department of Homeland Security announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be conducting the recently resumed fast-track deportation flights to Central America for migrants denied asylum in the United States.
DHS on Friday said that flights taking migrants back to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras had resumed.
“Asylum and other legal migration pathways should be readily available to those who need them, and this Administration is committed to fairly and efficiently considering asylum claims,” DHS said in a statement. “Those not seeking protection or who do not qualify will be promptly returned to their country of origin.”
Migrants who do not to have a valid asylum claim and who cannot be deported through the Title 42 public health protections will be taken away on these flights, according to Fox News. Most single adults had been deported by the Biden administration under Title 42, but unaccompanied children or migrant families with children under seven had not been expelled.
In the month of June, there were nearly 190,000 migrant encounters and since the start of 2021, there had been more than 1 million encounters.
Previously, the Biden administration had often processed migrants by issuing them a notice to either appear in court check in with a local ICE facility.
The Biden administration’s welcoming messaging on illegal immigration and the reversal of Trump-era policies is being attributed the reasons for the border crisis by Republicans and officials at the southern border.
The DHS statement appeared to show efforts at toughening the administration’s stance on illegal immigration.
“The expedited removal process is a lawful means to securely manage our border, and it is a step toward our broader aim to realize safe and orderly immigration processing,” the statement read. “By placing into expedited removal families who cannot be expelled under Title 42, we are making clear that those who do not qualify to remain in the United States will be promptly removed.”
The deportation flights comes after the White House announced how it plans to target the “root causes” of immigration from Central America. Among the issues the administration said attributes to the border surge are poverty, violence and climate change.
