The United States will return Cuban, Nicaraguan and Haitian migrants to Mexico under the so-called Title 42, a controversial regulation implemented by the previous president, Donald Trump, during the coronavirus pandemic and that allows rapid deportations.
in return, as the Reuters agency advanced this Thursday, the US government will expand its “humanitarian permits” program from which Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians benefited, with a quota of 30,000 admissions per month. Similarly, Mexico promised to accept 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled by the US.
“My message is this: if you are trying to leave Cuba, Nicaragua or Haiti, do not show up at the border. Stay where you are and make the request legally,” the president asked. at a press conference at the White Housewho reported the steps that can be followed.
For all those who are at the gates of the United States, at a land border, ask that they first request asylum through the apps CBP One. “If the application is denied or if they attempt to enter the United States illegally, they will be returned to Mexico and will no longer be eligible for the program.”
The president described the new scheme as “orderly, safe and humane” and assured, based on his experience with Venezuelans, that it works.
“We can’t stop people from making the trip, but we can ask them to come in an orderly manner under US law.”
“We have to recognize that as long as America is a land of freedom and opportunity, people are going to try to come here. That’s what many of our forefathers did, and it’s no surprise that it’s happening again today,” Biden said. “We can’t stop people from making the trip, but we can ask them to come in an orderly manner under the laws of the United States.”
The new measures, warned the president, “will improve things, but they will not solve the problem of the border completely, more must be done,” and he alluded to the approval by Congress of the budget for a more extensive migration program.
In the same appearance, Biden announced that on Sunday he himself will visit the border with Mexico in El Paso, Texas, to meet, he said, the needs of local authorities.
The norm raises to eight the nationalities subject to the restriction of Title 42, to which were added Venezuelans last October and to which Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans are subjected. As part of an agreement, Mexico will accept 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled by the US.
Migrants who meet a series of requirements, such as having a sponsor or not having crossed illegally through Panama or Mexico, may benefit from this program.
At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced increased penalties for people who cross the border irregularly.
The DHS secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, announced that, together with the Department of Justice, he will propose a new rule that will impose a five-year ban on people who cross the border irregularly, and who have not requested entry to the United States. the humanitarian program or request asylum in a third country that they have passed through on their journey north.
The norm will be published soon, Mayorkas assured reporters.
This rule is similar to a measure proposed by the Trump government, known as a “safe third country”, which sought to restrict asylum to migrants who had traveled by land to the US and who had not requested refuge in another country, request asylum .
Asked about this simile, Mayorkas pointed out that “there is no similarity” with the norm proposed by the previous Executive, because “legal ways of entering have been created” and there are some exceptions so that migrants can request asylum at the border.
Trump also said that, if elected, he will ask Congress to allow the death penalty against human traffickers.
Trump, by the way, has also attacked the current president this Thursday. The former president published a video in which he accuses Joe Biden of being “on the side of the cartels” of the drug because of his immigration policy.
“Biden’s border policies are a deadly betrayal of our nation. When I am president, it will be America’s policy to take down the cartels, the same way we take down the Islamic State,” said the former. representative on his social network Truth Social.
The Republican, who announced in November that he would run as a candidate to occupy the White House again in 2024, valued his immigration policy when he was in charge of the Government, assuring that the border was much more secure two years ago.
Trump also said that, if elected, he will ask Congress to allow the death penalty against drug and people traffickers.
For their part, a group of four influential Democratic senators, including New Jersey state legislator Bob Menéndez, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, rejected the measures.
“Continuing to use this failed and inhumane Trump-era policy will do nothing to restore the rule of law at the border,” Menéndez, Ray Luján, Alex Padilla and Cory Booker wrote in a statement.
Human rights groups also criticized the ad, accusing the Biden government of violating US law itself and international law.
“This subversion of human rights and refugee law is a stain on the government of President Joe Biden and will cause indelible damage to human lives,” said Eleanor Acer, director of Humans Right First’s refugee program.
The executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights criticized the Biden Administration, assuring that “opening a small window for a few refugees and people seeking asylum, while closing the door in the face of the majority, It is not ethical or the solution to the current situation at the border.”
Under US law, to apply for asylum it is necessary to be physically present on US soil.
DHS justified the expansion of Title 42 to these other three nationalities by citing a 90% reduction in the number of apprehensions of Venezuelans at the border after it began enforcing the restriction in October.
However, hundreds of migrants from this country continue to enter the country through illegal crossingswithout being detected by the immigration authorities and being exposed to situations of greater risk.
“Title 42 is a failure. It has only encouraged migrants to cross repeatedly and into increasingly remote and dangerous areas,” said Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of the organization Las Américas, in a statement.
Since it came into effect in 2020, the regulations have allowed the arrest of more than 2.5 million migrants, according to data from the International Rescue Committee.
“A worsening humanitarian crisis continues to unfold, one that the Biden Administration largely ignores”
Meanwhile, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio requested this Thursday support from the federal government before the massive arrival of immigrants to South Floridaespecially along the coasts of the Keys of this state, which in the last three days has exceeded a thousand undocumented immigrants.
In a letter addressed to the head of the Department of Homeland Security of the United States (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, Rubio specifies that “since December 30, 2022, at least 500 Cubans and more than 200 Haitians have arrived by sea in the Keys of Florida, overwhelming local resources.
Rubio refers in his letter to the closure of the Dry Tortugas National Park, a remote island in the Gulf of Mexico, due to the arrival of 364 migrants, mostly Cubans, over the past weekend.
“A worsening humanitarian crisis continues to unfold, one that the Biden Administration largely ignores,” Rubio writes in his letter dated the same day the president warned about the expulsion of migrants entering the country irregularly.
“This situation is the predictable result of this administration’s open border policies, where migrants are risking their lives in makeshift boats as a result. That message has been supplemented by lax border security measures and weak enforcement of our immigration laws. immigration,” the senator asserted.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
