In this Aug. 30, 2019, file photo, migrants, many of whom were returned to Mexico under the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" policy, wait in line to get a meal in an encampment near the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexio. The Biden administration on Friday, Feb. 12, 2021, announced plans for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico for their next immigration court hearings to be released in the United States while their cases proceed. (AP Photo/Veronica G. Cardenas, File)
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday announced plans for tens of thousands of asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico for their next immigration court hearings to be allowed into the United States while their cases proceed.
The first of an estimated 25,000 asylum-seekers in Mexico with active cases will be allowed in the United States on Feb. 19, authorities said. They plan to start slowly with two border crossings each processing up to 300 people a day and a third crossing taking fewer. Administration officials declined to name them out of fear they may encourage a rush of people to those locations.
See photos from Mexico as the US immigration debate continues in a gallery at the end of this story
The move is a major step toward dismantling one of former President Donald Trump's most consequential policies to deter asylum-seekers from coming to the U.S. About 70,000 asylum-seekers were enrolled in " Remain in Mexico," officially called "Migrant Protection Protocols," since it was introduced in January 2019.
On Biden's first day in office, the Homeland Security Department suspended the policy for new arrivals. Since then, some asylum-seekers picked up at the border have been released in the U.S. with notices to appear in court.
Biden is quickly making good on a campaign promise to end the policy, which the Trump administration said was critical to reversing a surge of asylum-seekers that peaked in 2019. But the policy also exposed people to violence in Mexican border cities and made it extremely difficult for them to find lawyers and communicate with courts about their cases.
"As President Biden has made clear, the U.S. government is committed to rebuilding a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system," said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. "This latest action is another step in our commitment to reform immigration policies that do not align with our nation's values."
Homeland Security Secretary nominee Alejandro Mayorkas testifies during his confirmation hearing in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Bill Clark/Pool via AP)
Homeland Security said the move "should not be interpreted as an opening for people to migrate irregularly to the United States." Administration officials have said repeatedly that the vast majority of people who cross the border illegally are quickly expelled under a public health order in place since the pandemic struck in March, but releases of some asylum-seeking families in Texas and California has worked against that messaging.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that she was concerned that limited releases in the U.S. may encourage others to cross illegally because "we don't want people to put themselves in danger at a time where it is not the right time to come, because we have not had time to put in place a humane and moral system and process."
Hearings for people enrolled in "Remain in Mexico" have been suspended since June due to the pandemic. Getting word out on when to report to the border for release in the United States may prove a daunting job.
Homeland Security said it would soon announce a "virtual registration process" available online and by phone for people to learn where and when they should report. It urged asylum-seekers not to report to the border unless instructed.
Asylum-seekers will be tested for COVID-19 before entering the U.S.
The announcement provides no relief to people whose cases were dismissed or denied, though administration officials did not rule out additional measures. Advocates argue that communication problems, including lack of working addresses in Mexico, caused some to miss hearings and lose their cases as a result.
More people are getting stopped crossing the border illegally since Biden took office.
Raul Ortiz, deputy chief of the Border Patrol, said Tuesday that more than 3,000 people had been stopped crossing the border illegally in each of the previous 10 days, compared to a daily average of 2,426 in January.
About 50 to 80 adults and children have been arriving daily since Jan. 27 at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, which temporarily houses people released by the Border Patrol, said Sister Norma Pimentel, the group's executive director. The charity tests for COVID-19 and sends anyone who tests positive to a hotel for isolation.
Jewish Family Service of San Diego housed 191 asylum-seekers the first 10 days of February after the were released by U.S. authorities, up from 144 in January and 54 in December, said Eitan Peled, the group's border services advocate. They are quarantined in hotels for 10 days.
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Photos: Scenes from Mexico as US immigration debate continues
About 70,000 asylum-seekers were enrolled in “Remain in Mexico,” officially called “Migrant Protection Protocols,” since it was introduced in January 2019.
In this Aug. 1, 2019, photo, migrants rest near a Mexican immigration center where migrants set up camp in Matamoros, Mexico. Turning Mexican border cities into waiting rooms for asylum seekers may be the Trump administration’s most forceful response yet to a surge of migrants, many of them Central American families. (AP Photo/Emilio Espejel)
In this July 28, 2019, photo, Cameroonians wait in a rented apartment in Tijuana, Mexico, until their names are called to claim asylum in the U.S. The Cameroonian men who share 10 mattresses on the floor of a third-floor apartment above a barber shop walk every morning to the busiest U.S. border crossing with Mexico, hoping against all odds that it will be their lucky day to claim asylum. Their unlikely bet is that a sympathetic Mexican official will somehow find a spot for them. (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat)
FILE - In this July 31, 2019 file photo, migrants return to Mexico, using the Puerta Mexico bridge that crosses the Rio Grande river, in Matamoros, Mexico, on the border with Brownsville, Texas. The long waits are starting to test the patience of immigrants and border towns. (AP Photo/Emilio Espejel, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2019, file photo, migrants rest near a Mexican immigration center where people have set up a camp to sleep in Matamoros, Mexico, on the border with Brownsville, Texas. At least 40,000 people are on waiting lists in Mexican border cities to claim asylum in the U.S. or have been returned to Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. (AP Photo/Emilio Espejel, File)
In this Aug. 30, 2019, photo, migrants, many who were returned to Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” program, wait in line to get a meal in an encampment near the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico. Pregnant women face special danger waiting in Mexico because places where migrants wait to enter the U.S. often don’t have access to regular meals, clean water, and medical care. (AP Photo/Veronica G. Cardenas)
Migrants who are applying for asylum in U.S. walk to their appoints with U.S. authorities, as they leave Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, for Laredo, Texas, early Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019. Tent courtrooms opened Monday in two Texas border cities to help process thousands of migrants who are being forced by the Trump administration to wait in Mexico while their requests for asylum wind through clogged immigration courts. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
A Mexican boy draws with crayons while his family waits in Tijuana, Mexico, for their names to be called from a waiting list to claim asylum at a border crossing in San Diego Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. An advocacy group served free oatmeal at left. The Trump administration played "bait and switch" by instructing migrants to wait in Mexico for an opportunity to apply for asylum before imposing sharp restrictions on eligibility, attorneys said in a court filing Thursday. (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat)
FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2019 file photo volunteers in Tijuana, Mexico, call names from from a waiting list of people to claim asylum at a border crossing in San Diego. Attorneys for the Trump administration and the American Civil Liberties Union have dueled before a federal appeals court on two major policies that rewrite rules for seeking and getting asylum. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, in San Francisco on a policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. More than 42,000 people have been returned to Mexico since January, when the policy officially known as "Migrant Protection Protocols" took effect. (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat,File)
In this Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019, photo, Lizbeth poses for a portrait in a relative's home behind a page from her court documents in Tijuana, Mexico. Lizbeth, a Salvadoran woman seeking asylum in the United States, never thought she would be returned to Mexico to wait for the outcome of her case, after suffering multiple assaults, and being kidnapped into prostitution on her journey through Mexico. Critics of the Trump administration's "Migrant Protection Protocols" policy, say it denies asylum seekers fair and humane treatment, largely by forcing them to wait in a country plagued by large pockets of drug-fueled violence, demonstrated this week by the slaughter near the U.S. border of several children and women. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
FILE - In this July 16, 2019 file photo, a woman sits with her sons as they wait to apply for asylum in the United States along the border in Tijuana, Mexico. A federal judge says a Guatemalan family cannot be returned to Mexico to wait for their next hearing in U.S. immigration court without being allowed to consult an attorney. The ruling challenges a key part of a Trump administration policy that has resulted in more than 55,000 asylum seekers being returned to Mexico to wait. The judge scheduled a hearing Dec. 13 to consider whether his temporary restraining order should apply throughout California. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
In this Jan. 11, 2020, photo, Enma Floriana chats with her 13-year-old son in the stairway of a migrant shelter in Mexicali, Mexico. The Guatemalan family is seeking asylum in a San Diego immigration court. Illegal border crossings have plummeted as the Trump administration has extended a policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico for court hearings in the U.S. (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat)
In this Jan. 10, 2020, photo, a snack vendor and a guitar player stand on a street in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico, leading to a border crossing in San Luis, Ariz. Months earlier, asylum seekers waited in line in tents in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. Illegal border crossings have plummeted as the Trump administration extended a policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico for court hearings in the U.S. (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat)
FILE - In this April 29, 2019, file photo, Cuban migrants are escorted in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, by Mexican immigration officials as they cross the Paso del Norte International bridge to be processed as asylum seekers on the U.S. side of the border. Newly unsealed court documents show that many U.S. holding cells along the Mexican border were less than half-full, or even empty, during an unprecedented surge of asylum-seeking Central American families. The documents cast doubt on the Trump administration's claims that people had to wait in Mexico because there weren't enough resources to accommodate them. (AP Photo/Christian Torres, File)
FILE - In this April 30, 2019, file photo, Cynthia Mayrena, 29, of Nicaragua, describes how the list of asylum seekers works in Matamoros, Mexico. Newly unsealed court documents show that many U.S. holding cells along the Mexican border were less than half-full, or even empty, during an unprecedented surge of asylum-seeking Central American families. The documents cast doubt on the Trump administration's claims that people had to wait in Mexico because there weren't enough resources to accommodate them. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2019 file photo, migrants, many who were returned to Mexico under the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" program, wait in line to get a meal in an encampment near the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico. A federal appeals court has temporarily halted a major Trump administration policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, in a 2-1 vote to put on hold the policy that furthered President Donald Trump's asylum crackdown. (AP Photo/Veronica G. Cardenas, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 3, 2019, file photo, Luis, left, a migrant fleeing gang violence in Michoacan, sits with his 13-year-old son on a bench in a public park facing a tent camp for refugees in Juarez, Mexico. Luis' family has lived in the camp for two months while they wait to apply for asylum in the U.S., at a border crossing about a quarter of a mile away. The Supreme Court on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, said it would allow the Trump administration to continue enforcing a policy that makes asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings, despite lower court rulings that the policy probably is illegal. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2019 file photo, a Honduran mother plays with her son as they wait in line to get a meal in an encampment near the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico. One by one, asylum-seekers from El Salvador and Honduras who are waiting in Mexico for court hearings in the United States appeared before an immigration judge to explain why, after months of effort, they couldn't find an attorney. (AP Photo/Veronica G. Cardenas, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2019, file photo, migrants return to Mexico as other migrants line up on their way to request asylum in the U.S., at the foot of the Puerta Mexico bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, that crosses into Brownsville, Texas. One by one, asylum-seekers from El Salvador and Honduras who are waiting in Mexico for court hearings in the United States appeared before an immigration judge to explain why, after months of effort, they couldn't find an attorney. Only 5.3% of asylum-seekers subject to the Migrant Protection Protocols, as the "Remain in Mexico" policy is officially known, had lawyers through the end of January, compared with 85% for asylum-seekers nationwide, according to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. (AP Photo/Emilio Espejel, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2020, file photo, Ruth Aracely Monroy, right, rushes her son, Nahum Perla, left, to school from their home on the outskirts of Tijuana, Mexico. They were among the first sent back to Mexico under a Trump administration policy that dramatically reshaped the scene at the U.S.-Mexico border by returning migrants to Mexico to wait out their U.S. asylum process. The Trump administration has suspended immigration court hearings for asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico through June 1, bowing to public health concerns arising from the coronavirus while extending a state of limbo those locked down in Mexican migrant shelters. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2020, file photo, Juan Carlos Perla sits with his son, Joshua Perla, as his wife, Ruth Aracely Monroy, right, stands in their home on the outskirts of Tijuana, Mexico. After fleeing violence in El Salvador, the family is among 60,000 U.S. asylum seekers returned to Mexico to wait while their claim makes its way through the U.S. court system. The Trump administration has suspended immigration court hearings for asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico through June 1, bowing to public health concerns arising from the coronavirus while extending a state of limbo those locked down in Mexican migrant shelters. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
A woman seeking asylum in the U.S and waiting in Mexico, is tested at a clinic in Matamoros, Mexico, Nov. 17, 2020. A humanitarian organization led by U.S. military veterans has treated thousands of migrants over the past year at two clinics in a Mexican town across the border from Texas. But Global Response Management is attempting to go beyond mere crisis response and build a system to make it easier to track the health of migrants along their journey from Central America. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
In this Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019, photo, Lizbeth poses for a portrait in a relative's home in Tijuana, Mexico. Lizbeth, a Salvadoran woman seeking asylum in the United States, never thought she would be returned to Mexico to wait for the outcome of her case, after suffering multiple assaults, and being kidnapped into prostitution on her journey through Mexico. Critics of the Trump administration's "Migrant Protection Protocols" policy, say it denies asylum seekers fair and humane treatment, largely by forcing them to wait in a country plagued by large pockets of drug-fueled violence, demonstrated this week by the slaughter near the U.S. border of several children and women. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
