The United States will set up regional migrant processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala in an effort to reduce arrivals at the southern border following a pandemic policy

ends next month, senior

to pray

Officials announced this on Thursday.

The administration is also in talks with other Latin American countries, officials said during a phone call with reporters, and may announce more processing centers in the coming weeks.

In the centers, m M

migrants will be screened

at the centers

to be eligible for the US Refugee Admissions Program and other humanitarian and labor pathways.

Spain and Canada will accept referrals from the regional centers, Biden administration officials said.

“Migration affects every country in the region”,

one one

said a senior official. “No country alone can provide solutions for millions of displaced people.”

The announcement comes two weeks before the

expected

end of title 42

orders

,

which was a pandemic-era border policy implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic

other

That

preventing migrants from applying for asylum,

other

allow

entered

border agents

fast

many of them back

fast

back to Mexico.

WhenTitle 42

orders

lifting

son

On May 11, immigration officers will return to processing people under the long-standing Title 8 authority. Deportations under Title 8 carry harsher consequences, including potential criminal charges and banning people from returning for at least five years.

An official said Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security will significantly expand the use of expedited removal to process migrants’ requests for help within days. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has added payphones and private areas to border facilities to make calling and facilitating lawyers

by phone

asylum talks.

The administration will expand available appointments through the CBP One mobile application. It will also establish a family reunification program for people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, including Colombians, the official said, and update existing reunification programs for people from Cuba and Haiti.

Department of

Homeland Security

civil service leaders

have made plans for the end of Title 42

orders

for the past year. An official said there are now 2,400 agents working the southern border and the agency plans to hire 300 more.