During the first week of the New Year, President Biden delivered a speech on immigration announcing a series of dramatic measures, including an expansion of the Trump-era Title 42 public health order, which prevents migrants from certain countries from using their legal right to make asylum claims in the United States. While Biden urged migrants to seek asylum through a parole process in their home countries rather than do so at the U.S. border, the measures represent another level of deterrence that endangers the lives of those seeking refuge in the United States.
Migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haïti will now be expelled when they cross into the United States between ports of entry, as are migrants from México, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Venezuela. Touting the more recent expansion of Title 42 for Venezuelan migrants as a success, President Biden stated the new measures will require similar acceptance criteria for asylum-seekers from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haïti. They will need to have a sponsor in the United States, pass a background check and enter the country through an airport with a passport.
The Trump administration initially used the archaic public health order to authorize Border Patrol (CBP) agents to expel migrants from the United States without a hearing by using the pandemic as an excuse to target Black and Brown migrants. In addition to being a racist policy, under Biden, it will now selectively exclude migrants who lack the resources to get documentation, buy airline tickets and plan their arrival with sponsors in the United States. It is an unreasonable set of criteria for people seeking safety from repression or harm.
I recently spoke with two Venezuelan men in Ciudad Juárez who told me that after being in México for a month they had nowhere to go, lacked the money to comply with the requirements under the new Biden plan, and were desperately seeking answers. At the time, they expected the end of Title 42 in late December to provide relief and allow them and their young families to seek asylum in the United States. These hopes are likely diminished now.
Recently, the Supreme Court decided to keep Title 42 in place until at least February, when it will hear arguments on whether Republican-led states can challenge a lower court ruling that ordered the Biden administration to lift Title 42.
The higher court ruling, along with the expanded application of Title 42, will ensure that more asylum seekers will be without protection and their lives will be in danger. Migrants who have been returned to México suffer violence at the hands of Mexican authorities or people seeking to harm them. Over the past years, hundreds of migrants have died trying to cross into the United States, breaking records for fiscal years 2021 and 2022. [At least 853 migrants died trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border unlawfully in the past 12 months, making the fiscal year 2022 the deadliest year for migrants recorded by the U.S. government, according to internal Border Patrol obtained by CBS News.]
These included people who drowned in the Rio Grande or in the Pacific Ocean, fell from 30-foot border walls, were fatalities in vehicle pursuits, or suffocated in tractor-trailer trucks.
The expansion of Title 42 worsens human rights abuses of migrants seeking asylum and it dangerously erodes the asylum process which could have profound implications for how nation-states in the future consider their obligations to take in people fleeing harm.
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