Causes.com
| 5.3.23
As Border Crisis Persists, Biden Deploys 1,500 Troops, Opens New Immigration Centers
Is the U.S. doing enough to help migrants?
Updated May 3, 2023
- The U.S. is sending 1,500 troops to the Mexico border in advance of an expected surge in migration and asylum-seeking with the May 11 expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era migration policy.
- Title 42 allowed the government to automatically deport any undocumented migrants, including asylum seekers, ostensibly on Covid-19 public health emergency grounds.
- The newly deployed troops will bolster the 2,500 National Guard forces already at the border and will provide help with narcotics detection, warehouse support, transportation, and data processing.
- The additional personnel will be deployed for 90 days to fill "critical capability gaps," according to the Department of Defense.
- CBP official Troy Miller told Congress that he expects his agency to process over 10,000 migrants a day upon the expiration of Title 42.
- In 2022, over 2.76 million attempts were recorded, the highest on record.
Updated - April 27, 2023
- Two weeks before Trump-era Title 42 ends, the Biden admin has decided to set up migrant processing centers throughout Latin America to address the ongoing migrant crisis and to stem the tide of migrants reaching the border.
- Title 42 has been used over 2.7 million times to expel prospective asylum-seekers on Covid-19 grounds.
- Title 42's dissolution on May 11, when the Covid public health emergency ends, comes at a time of year that is historically busy in terms of migration.
What is the administration saying?
- Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that regional processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia will be opened within two weeks.
- Mayorkas said:
“The whole model is to reach the people where they are — to cut the smugglers out and to have them avoid the perilous journey that too many do not make. But we are beginning in Guatemala and Colombia. We are beginning at the level that I described, and we will scale up.”
- Politico has reported that more centers could be opened in Costa Rica and Ecuador but that the government is still negotiating future locations.
- Spain and Canada have publicly agreed to accept referrals from the U.S. processing centers.
- A senior administrator said of Biden's immigration policies:
“[It’s] a significant plan that is really at a level of ambition and scale that has never been done before. However, there is far more that we could do if we had the cooperation of Congress. They have really tied our hands, and so we really do appeal to Congress to work with us.”
What will the migrant centers do?
- Partners, including the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, will screen migrants at these centers and determine if they qualify for entry into the U.S.
- The goal is to screen migrants before they make the treacherous journey north to the U.S. border and to provide them with lawful migration pathways, including claiming refugee status, family reunification, or labor pathways.
- The U.S. is expecting to screen 5,000 to 6,000 migrants a month at these new centers.
- Admin officials have also announced the expansion of family reunification migration pathways to citizens from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Colombia. This program was previously only available to Cubans and Haitians.
What's the story?
- Thousands of migrants are marching north to Mexico City as part of a mass protest to demand the end of inhumane conditions at detention centers and a continuing legacy of injustice.
- The caravan, which left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on Sunday, consists of roughly 3,000 people. They have been walking throughout the day in temperatures exceeding 95F and don't plan to reach the capital until late next week.
- Most protesters originate from Central America, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia, countries impacted by cartel violence, poverty, femicide, and environmental degradation.
- The majority of these migrants attempt to seek asylum in the U.S., but the number pursuing refuge in Mexico is growing. It is currently unknown whether the migrant caravan will continue north to the U.S. border.
What do the protesters want?
- The protests are a reaction to the mistreatment of migrants and, more specifically, to the fatal fire at a detention center in the border city of Ciudad Juárez that killed forty people on March 27. The blaze started when detained migrants set fire to foam mattresses upon learning they would be deported back to their countries of origin.
- Last week, roughly two dozen makeshift tents at a migrant camp in Matamoros were also set on fire, highlighting the growing frustration and instability at the border.
- The protesters are demanding better treatment of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, with some holding signs insinuating government culpability in the fatal fire. They're fighting for Mexico's National Immigration Institute to be dissolved and for those responsible for the fire to face legal consequences.
What are people saying?
- The caravan offers safety in numbers for the protesters. Human rights groups warn that attempts to break up and separate the protesters can make individuals vulnerable to people smugglers and traffickers.
- Salvadoran migrant Miriam Argueta told the Associated Press:
"The only thing we are asking for is justice, and to be treated like anyone else."
- Venezuelan migrant Estefany Peroez, traveling with her three daughters, said:
"We don't have anything to eat, the authorities don't help us, we are doing this to give my daughters a better life."
- Mexican prosecutors have said they will press charges against the immigration agency's top official, Francisco Garduño, for his role in a "pattern of irresponsibility" in the Immigration Institute.
What is the role of the U.S.?
- Asylum seekers stuck in Mexico due to strict U.S. immigration policies are in legal limbo and are facing human rights abuses at the hands of organized crime, government neglect, and people smugglers.
- While Biden's new rules create a legal pathway for migrants to claim asylum in the U.S., they also empower border staff to turn away migrants who have not taken advantage of it, sending individuals and families back to Mexico or their home countries.
- Asylum seekers must now use an app to schedule an appointment for an asylum hearing at the U.S.-Mexico border before arrival, or they will be turned away at the border. However, difficulties have beset the app, creating further barriers for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty — including failure to read the faces of darker-skinned applicants and a demand for tech fluency, access to a newer phone, and reliable internet connection.
Is the U.S. doing enough to help migrants?
—Emma Kansiz
(Photo Credit: Pionero Philanthropy)
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Step in the right direction:
1) Not every immigrant has adequate tech (phone, WiFi) to make use of the app so immigration centers with equipment & staff are helpful, especially in countries that are closest to their home country so they can apply for asylum in countries other than the US.
2) partner with NGOs and international organizations to help people navigate the app, make WiFi available and provide access for those without cell phones. Get UNHRC involved as they are experienced in creating refugee camps, maintaining them and working with all countries to place refugees. This isn't a US problem, it's an Americas problem for this hemisphere, and Europe is facing a similar problem in their hemisphere.
3) make sure countries (Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain) designated to offer asylum actually are accepting and processing applications so people apply at the countries near them and end caravsns walking hundreds and thousands of miles to the US border
4) staff up the border with sufficient agents to review all claims in 30 days under the Final Asylum Rule
5) provide real time, online tracking that includes more than just encounters but also disposition like Asylum applications, rejected, accepted, deported)
https://ijrcenter.org/refugee-law/
https://www.causes.com/comments/76653
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-admin-move-expedite-asylum-processing-mixed-feedback/story?id=83647931
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/04/claims-ghost-flights-illegal-immigrants-dont-add-up/
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/mar/16/tyler-kistner/claims-biden-secretly-flying-immigrants-us-cities-/
https://www.causes.com/comments/2233
https://www.causes.com/comments/8574
https://www.causes.com/comments/9061
https://www.causes.com/comments/71150
https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/news-releases/dhs-and-doj-issue-rule-to-efficiently-and-fairly-process-asylum-claims
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/05/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-border-enforcement-actions/
We need to do more to ensure safe, legal migration in this hemisphere, and Congress has failed these people
Mexico is not doing enough to treat migrants humanely, and the US is complicit.
Wake up, Congress, and find a way to improve immigration.
People all over the world are leaving their home countries for what ever reason, looking for "greener pastures". All they want is to be able to house, feed, and educate their families as well as receiving gainful employment. But like every other country, the governing bodies are too puffed up with themselves to really care about others. It's a sad, sad situation and must start somewhere. Decent treatment for all applicants should be attended to ASAP which includes living quarters, nourishment, and education. We are all related in the eyes of the Universe and we need to remember this fact. Our own Congress, for what its worth, hasn't done a damn thing to aid these people because their chosen "party" doesn't want anything to do with them. Closed minded politicians have no business being in charge of this situation no matter what they try to make the rest of us believe. We can't stop people from wanting a better life, so why not give them a chance. They may even get educated enough to return to their native lands and make the necessary changes needed there. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." I choose to put my faith in those who are willing to make such sacrifices.
While many folks think that the government is not doing enough about immigration at our southern border, we can't, in reality, deal with the numbers of folks who want into America.
Unfortunately, we are not going to see a slow down as climate change is going to add to the numbers of folks seeking new places to live.
I am not sure that there is an easy answer to this issue. It's not jsut about letting folks in. There is the impact on our nation's infrastructure that limits the numbers of folks that can be absorbed. We have housing issues here in America and that's not going to change any time soon.
Of course not...
But elected politicians in the USA and officials/agents in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol don't seriously want to help the people fleeing violence in Mexico, Central and South America and the Carribean.
They are paying for the bad acts of the United States and U.S. Corporations especially in Central America. Those countries weren't called "Banana Republics" for no reason. Now those Banana Republics are involved narco-trafficking--mainly to supply the United States with illicit drugs.
The current troubles at our Southern Border is Karma.
Here's a solution - any time someone claims we have open borders, we dump them in Mexico and tell them to try to get back into the US without their passport. Let's see how open the borders really are.
Over five million souls have entered the United States of America through abnormal channels. The Biden administration claims that there is no border crisis. Yet crime, disease, death, and untold financial turmoil has been foisted upon hard-working American citizens forced to pay the bills for healthcare, education, housing, food, clothing, etc. Migrants should apply well in advance to come to our country. They should have a sponsor financially capable of meeting the applicants needs or the applicants themselves should prove financial responsibility. They should also have a desire to assimilate among the citizenry, learning America's proud heritage. Migrant children are of particular risk, lost to illegal child labor businesses and sex trafficking. Women are also being trafficked in the sex industry. Open borders have also resulted in hundreds of thousands of illegal drug deaths of US citizens. It is time for this administration and our legislators to responsibly meet its law-given obligations of caring for US citizens as committed through the Constitution of the United States.
Close the borders and repair our broken immigration system!! Our sovereignty as a nation should come first. The general welfare of our citizens should come first. Those individuals seeking asylum need to go through the proper vetting BEFORE crossing over. Our national debt is out of control and we keep pouring our tax dollars into resources for illegal immigrants.
The US should be helping and welcoming migrants, not keeping them from our border.
Republicans like to point fingers at everyone but themselves. But it is they who are responsible for crafting workable legislation. Republicans refuse to do that. Until Republicans get their heads out of their butts, we will continue to have difficulties.
Congress has failed for decades enacting a fair and logical immigration policy and law. Congress enjoys blaming everyone else when they are and continue to be the failures.
I need for information!
Migrtants accepted at the border , seeking jobs ,should be sent to areas that have unfilled jobs that no one in the seems want. IE: farming, resteraunt, fast food, ect...
Close the damn border, PERIOD! This deployment is to process, not secure our borders. Biden is the most pathetic president our nation has ever had.
Not until there is good immigration legislation
Need reforms!
CAUSES ASKS: "Is the U.S. doing enough to help migrants?" ME: Not IMHO. For starters, where are the additional immigration judges? Attorneys? Resources? The failures of Congress are legion.
I think back to the Holocaust and to the people who died because we refused to help them escape a deadly situation. We must help refugees by helping to solve problems in their countries of origin and helping them find safe places to live. We must overcome xenophobia and find empathy and compassion for those who have no options to escape violence and extreme poverty.
Something has to be done; I'm not sure the armed forces are the answer. How about deploying 1500 lawyers who speak Spanish who can help these people come in by legal means and redirect them to places where their presence will do some good for our country?
Congress has been MIA for years kicking the can down the road on comprehensive immigration reform. Our borders must be closed, we must learn to fast track applications and put reasonable, sustainable laws in place
Too much. Let us have Vets go to Mexico, walk across and get the goodiores.
Just closed the Border.
And allow them in legally is running in.
HELP THEM???? kick their asses out - all of them - men, women, children and babies...
Were done!
We're probably not, but to be fair, I doubt that we'l ever be able to keep up with the demand. While, some short-term fixes can be employed, what's really needed is comprehensive immigration reform that is far-sighted. The other thing that is needed which is for the most part limiting is to reform conditions in the home countries of the migrants so that there is not a need to immigrate to another country. While, the US can have some impact on improving conditions in their home countries, we can't control everything that goes on in those countries. The various countries themselves have to want to bring about reform and given that the leaders of many of these countries profit from the corruption and are the source of that corruption, it;s not likely that the US can or will have much of an impact.
We need to speed up the process !
We have provided more to non-citizens than to our own. Enough is enough. We need to work on the homeless, the starving, the mentally ill (including Biden's state of mind).
Until we put effort into housing, providing food and meals and getting people the help they need, we shouldn't be taking any new people into our country.
We also need to work on unity and as long as this racist, money laundering, career politician and his administration are in office, that will never happen. They are hell bent on destroying the middle class so the upper class can thrive.