(EFE).- The irregular arrival to the United States of Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans decreased by 97% in January compared to December, the period in which the policy that allows direct expulsion to Mexico to nationals of those three countries.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in charge of immigration policy, published this Wednesday these preliminary data for January, which only include the number of migrants detained when crossing the border and not those who manage to enter US territory without being detected by the authorities.
In statements to the press, DHS officials explained that if the trend continues, January could be one of the lowest months for immigration detention at the US-Mexico border since February 2021.
To calculate this 97% decrease, the sources compared the data from the week of December 11 last year, when an average of 3,367 arrests were recorded each day, with another seven days in January, in which there were 115 arrests per day. .
In early January, US President Joe Biden announced that his country was going to return nationals from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti to Mexico, expanding the use of a controversial rule called Title 42inherited from former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and which allows expelling migrants with the excuse of the pandemic.
The sources compared the data from the week of December 11 last year, when an average of 3,367 arrests were recorded each day, with another seven days in January in which there were 115 arrests per day.
At the same time, the Biden government announced the expansion of a program that will allow up to 30,000 people from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti to enter the US each month, thus expanding a plan it had launched in October to grant humanitarian visas to Venezuelans.
According to the aforementioned officials, up to 1,700 people from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti have already taken advantage of this program, and thousands of others have begun the process.
To benefit from it, however, migrants and refugees have to meet a series of requirements, such as arriving by plane and having a sponsor in the United States who can prove that they will be able to support them in their adaptation to the country.
The Biden government already began in October to apply Title 42 to Venezuelans, whose arrival had increased in recent months because the US and Venezuela do not officially have diplomatic relations, so Caracas did not accept repatriation flights with the migrants.
Human rights organizations have criticized Biden for continuing to implement Title 42 and argue that it violates anyone’s right to seek asylum.
In addition, legislators from his own party, the Democrats, have pressured him not to expand it and apply it to other nationals, such as Cubans, who have traditionally sought asylum in the US.
For its part, the Biden government has defended itself by saying that it has to continue applying this program by order of the US Supreme Court, which in December accepted a petition from twenty states governed by Republicans and determined that Title 42 should continue. asset.
Since it went into effect in 2020, Title 42 has allowed the arrest of more than 2.5 million migrants, according to data from the International Rescue Committee.
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