Move is part of a plan to roll back immigration policies started under the Trump administration
The U.S. government next week will begin to gradually process asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico under a controversial programme put in place by former President Donald Trump, officials said.
The moves are part of a plan by the administration of President Joe Biden to end the programme, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), an effort complicated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and concerns over illegal immigration.
The Trump administration launched the programme in 2019 as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on the ability to seek asylum in the U.S., which Trump officials depicted as rife with fraud and meritless claims. The initiative forced more than 65,000 non-Mexican asylum seekers back across the border to wait for their U.S. court hearings, although far fewer are believed to still be in Mexico.
The Biden administration will begin by working to process about 25,000…