While it's nice to hear that some people are finally getting through, the Biden admin still making use of Title 42 is pretty unabashedly evil, IMO. See Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without...
While it's nice to hear that some people are finally getting through, the Biden admin still making use of Title 42 is pretty unabashedly evil, IMO. See Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) article on it: Pushed back, beaten and exposed: Stories from the US-Mexico border
For two years, under a policy known as Title 42, the United States government has used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to close its southern border to asylum seekers. This devastating policy has exposed highly vulnerable people to more violence and danger.
Title 42, invoked by the Trump administration in 2020 and repeatedly extended by the Biden administration, allows the blocking and expulsion of people seeking protection at the US border. The policy has been used to authorise over 1.45 million expulsions from the US to dangerous cities along the US-Mexico border, where people are abandoned with limited access to shelter, basic services, and at threat of violence from criminal gangs or police.
Every day, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in Mexico witness the fear that asylum seekers and migrants face due to the policy of Title 42. For two years we have repeatedly stated that there is no legitimate public health justification for Title 42.
Title 42 is a xenophobic policy disguised as public health protection that does nothing but put vulnerable people in harm’s way. There is no excuse for continuing to misuse the order to turn away asylum seekers and block their right to seek protection. The Biden administration must end Title 42 immediately.
Below are testimonies from people recently expelled from the United States under Title 42, who are now stranded in Piedras Negras, along the US-Mexico border.
Decidedly mixed feelings about this. Only accepting people from airports makes dangerous land crossings less attractive, so I guess that's good? You might argue that airplane flights are...
Decidedly mixed feelings about this. Only accepting people from airports makes dangerous land crossings less attractive, so I guess that's good? You might argue that airplane flights are expensive, but smugglers charge high prices too.
On the other hand, the reason that land crossings are dangerous is that the easy places to cross the border have been walled off. It would make more sense to discourage people from attempting to cross at more dangerous places, in favor of some safer land crossings that aren't made too hard.
(Also note that "rights language" implies that some things should be given for free. It seems that the US is neither willing to live up to what free access implies, nor to come up with rational hurdles for getting the pretty attractive benefits of living in the US. Like, instead of having smugglers charge money for people to get the chance to risk their lives, the US could just charge a fee to apply.)
The Biden administration agreed to accept up to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion, while Mexico has agreed to take back Venezuelans who come to the U.S. illegally over land, the U.S. and Mexico said Wednesday.
Effective immediately, Venezuelans who walk or swim across the border will be immediately returned to Mexico under a pandemic rule known as Title 42 authority, which suspends rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
[…]
The moves are a response to a dramatic increase in migration from Venezuela, which leapfrogged over Guatemala and Honduras in August to become the second largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexico.
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The announcement amounts to a potentially major expansion of Title 42 even though the administration recently sought to end it. Senior officials told reporters they are bound by a federal judge’s decision in May to keep Title 42 in place.
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Venezuelans who successfully apply online will come to the United States through an airport, similar to an effort that began in April to admit up to 100,000 Ukrainians fleeing war for stays of up two years. The U.S. has admitted tens of thousands of Ukrainians since then, including including nearly 17,000 in August.
Venezuelans, like Ukrainians, must have a financial sponsor in the United States.
They also must figure out how to reach the U.S. There are currently no flights allowed from Venezuela due to U.S. concerns about the safety of Venezuela’s aviation industry. The restriction applies to charter and commercial flights.
[…]
An estimated 6.8 million Venezuelans have fled their country since the economy tanked in 2014, mostly to Latin America and Caribbean countries. But the U.S. economy’s relative strength since the COVID-19 pandemic has caused Venezuelan migrants to look north. The Biden administration’s inability to apply Title 42 has provided more incentive.
Mexico, under pressure from the U.S. administration, introduced restrictions on air travel to limit Venezuelan migration to the United States in January, but many then shifted to a dangerous route over land that includes Panama’s notorious Darien Gap.
Very interesting turn in immigration policy, but also that the current administration is cherry picking the previous administration's interpretation of law. Thanks for the link and highlights.
Very interesting turn in immigration policy, but also that the current administration is cherry picking the previous administration's interpretation of law. Thanks for the link and highlights.
While it's nice to hear that some people are finally getting through, the Biden admin still making use of Title 42 is pretty unabashedly evil, IMO. See Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) article on it:
Pushed back, beaten and exposed: Stories from the US-Mexico border
p.s. Donation link, because MSF deserves it.
Decidedly mixed feelings about this. Only accepting people from airports makes dangerous land crossings less attractive, so I guess that's good? You might argue that airplane flights are expensive, but smugglers charge high prices too.
On the other hand, the reason that land crossings are dangerous is that the easy places to cross the border have been walled off. It would make more sense to discourage people from attempting to cross at more dangerous places, in favor of some safer land crossings that aren't made too hard.
(Also note that "rights language" implies that some things should be given for free. It seems that the US is neither willing to live up to what free access implies, nor to come up with rational hurdles for getting the pretty attractive benefits of living in the US. Like, instead of having smugglers charge money for people to get the chance to risk their lives, the US could just charge a fee to apply.)
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
Very interesting turn in immigration policy, but also that the current administration is cherry picking the previous administration's interpretation of law. Thanks for the link and highlights.