MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The United States will continue to accept migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela under a humanitarian program after May 11, when the COVID-19 health policy known as Title 42 is set to end, the U.S. and Mexican governments said on Tuesday.
Mexico, for its part, will continue accepting back migrants returned to Mexico on humanitarian grounds, the two countries said in a joint statement.
The statement also said the United States would accept some 100,000 people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras under a family reunification program announced last week, but did not give a time frame for that number.
The statement came after Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with White House Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall on Tuesday to discuss migration ahead Title 42’s impending end.
Mexico has been accepting migrants deported from the U.S. under the Title 42 policy, which allows the U.S. to rapidly expel migrants illegally entering the U.S. back to Mexico, including Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.
Tuesday’s announcement indicates that a humanitarian parole program providing legal migration pathways for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans will continue after Title 42’s end.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Stephen Coates)
