Two weeks after a federal judge allowed the Biden administration to end the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, U.S. judges are beginning to allow migrants to stay in the country as their asylum claims are pending.
Willian, a 46-year-old asylum-seeker from Ecuador, waits for a ride outside the Annunciation House after leaving immigration court in El Paso on Tuesday.
After his hearing, Willian — who asked to be identified by his first name out of fear that criminals in Ecuador may target his family — walked out of the courthouse and felt a sense of relief wash over him. At a migrant shelter a few blocks away, he waited for his niece to pick him up before he caught a flight to New York City. He plans to stay with his sister-in-law there until his asylum case is decided.
Migrants from Venezuela looking for a place to stay for the night on Tuesday spoke to a volunteer at Annunciation House, a local migrant shelter in El Paso. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune Being removed from MPP and allowed to enter the U.S. greatly increases migrants’ chances of being granted asylum, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Annunciation House volunteer Kyung Ju Lee gives an orientation to 25-year-old asylum-seeker Arias of the Dominican Republic after arriving to the migrant shelter on Tuesday in El Paso. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune