First asylum seekers from Mexican borders enters US

The first asylum seekers from a Mexican border camp to become a symbol of immigration restrictions in the Trump era entered the United States on Thursday under a new policy aimed at ending the hardships that migrants endure in dangerous border villages.

The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the initial group consisted of 27 people living in the temporary camp in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

Some residents have been residing there for more than a year under former President Donald Trump's controversial Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, which requires asylum seekers in Mexico to wait for hearings in U.S. court.

A new rules under President Joe Biden will increasingly allow thousands of MPP asylum seekers to await U.S. court decisions. Some asylum seekers were allowed to move to San Ysidro, California, last week.

Francisco Gallardo, who operates a tractor in Matamoros and provides humanitarian aid in the camp, welcomed the news that the process had begun in Matamoros, but said it should have come sooner.

"It's good that they're doing it, but unfortunately late," he said.

The icy temperature on the border between the US and Mexico has made the Matamoros camp a priority, the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday.

Asylum seekers in the camp have struggled to ensure proper hygiene and protect themselves from organized crime in a state that is one of the most violent in Mexico.

"The camp was a space that posed multiple risks to migrants," said Misael Hernandez, a researcher on migration issues at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte.

The Migration Institute in Mexico did not immediately respond to a request for comment.