MEXICO CITY, Nov 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mauricio Lopez was deported to Mexico after spending most of his life in the United States. Now he hopes against the odds that Joe Biden’s administration will let him return.
The 26-year-old English teacher is one of thousands of migrants known as
“dreamers” who as children were taken to the US by their parents.
Like many Mexicans who were expelled, in particular under outgoing
President Donald Trump, Lopez is hoping that President-elect Biden will push for changes that protect undocumented migrants.
“It would be good for us if he relaxes immigration laws … if there are
asylum processes, if he makes it easier for us to obtain work permits or
tourist visas, since many of us have families there,” he said.
Lopez was deported to Mexico from North Carolina in 2016 after he was
unable to renew his residency permit under the DACA program for unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children.
He was deported with his mother, leaving behind a sister but joining a
brother who had already been sent back to Mexico years earlier.
Lopez is part of a growing number of deportees trying to integrate into a
country that often feels foreign to them.
Around 89,000 Mexicans were expelled from the United States in the first
half of this year, according to the interior ministry.
Widespread expulsions have also occurred under Democratic administrations.
About three million unauthorized immigrants were deported by former
president Barack Obama between 2009 and 2016, when Biden was vice president.
Biden has signaled a break with the policies of Trump, who vowed to halt
almost all immigration and expel the more than 10 million undocumented
migrants estimated to live in the United States.
The Republican sparked anger during his 2016 election campaign when he
branded Mexican migrants “rapists” and drug dealers, and vowed to build a
wall along the southern US border.
But experts say Biden may be hamstrung by a Republican-controlled Senate, depending on the result of runoffs in the state of Georgia on Jan 5.
Biden fiercely criticized Trump’s moves against “Dreamers.”
Around 12 million people born in Mexico live in the US, as well as another
26 million who have at least one parent or grandparent born on Mexican soil. — NNN-AGENCIES
