For deserving asylum-seekers, like those hoping to escape authoritarian socialism in Venezuela, U.S. policies have failed them yet again.
For deserving asylum-seekers, like those hoping to escape authoritarian socialism in Venezuela, U.S. policies have failed them yet again.
I n a press conference earlier this week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed reports that the Biden administration is deporting Venezuelan asylum-seekers at the southern border to Colombia. This is the latest in a slew of hypocrisies stemming from the White House’s failed immigration agenda.
Under Nicolás Maduro’s socialist dictatorship, poverty and violence are everyday realities for Venezuelans, making them prime candidates for legal bids at U.S. asylum. During his candidacy, President Biden slammed Donald Trump for “stealth deportations” through third-party countries, saying the president had “no regard for the suffering of the Venezuelan people.”
But Daniel Di Martino, a Venezuelan freedom activist, called the Biden administration’s current approach “appalling.”
It is “deporting Venezuelans to other countries without giving them the chance to have their asylum cases heard,” he told NR. “Everyone should abide by the law. That includes the right to request asylum.”
These Venezuelans, along with other migrants, aren’t even getting that chance.
The Biden administration is turning migrants away using Title 42, a Trump-era policy enacted at the height of Covid. The Trump administration faced fierce criticism by the Left when it enacted Title 42, accused of political motivation. Now Biden is following suit, having doubled the level of expulsions under Trump.
Title 42 allows for the expulsion of migrants, citing pandemic-related public-health concerns despite the end of U.S. travel restrictions. The unfortunate reality is that Biden’s reckless immigration agenda has created a quagmire where Title 42 is needed even more. Even as the administration has tried to scrap proven Trump-era immigration policies, it is obviously cowering behind this one because border facilities and asylum pipelines are overwhelmed.
In an August 2 declaration, David Shahoulian, the DHS assistant secretary for border and immigration policy, wrote that the rate of migrant arrivals has “strained DHS operations and caused border facilities to be filled beyond their normal operating capacity,” impeding officials from maintaining social distancing. He continued, saying that DHS would lack “sufficient capacity” to process migrants without “its ability to implement the CDC Order.”
Translation: Without Title 42, the Biden administration wouldn’t be able to deal with the surge of migrants it’s all but invited to the border.
Throughout his campaign, Biden promised a more progressive and humane approach to immigration. One of his first acts as president was signing an executive order that repealed Trump-era immigration policies. He effectively opened the border by ending MPP, Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that required asylum-seekers to await trial in Mexico.
Hoping to take advantage of Biden’s approach, 1.7 million migrants arrived at the southern border during fiscal year 2021. That’s more than triple the amount that arrived in 2020 during the Trump administration.
As a result of this misleading and misguided agenda, asylum-seekers — many with legitimate claims — are sidelined.
Using Title 42, the Biden administration has expelled over 990,000 migrants without giving them the chance to file for asylum, more than doubling the number of expulsions under Trump. In fact, in the first two months of the Biden presidency, Title 42 expulsions went from 62,5000 to 107,300, coinciding with the spike in arrivals. In October 2021, a woman fleeing Mexican cartel violence committed suicide when she found out that Title 42 would bar her from applying for asylum.
In June, the White House tapped six humanitarian groups to be partners in processing asylum-seekers, sparking hopes for a transition away from Title 42. However, since then, the president has been doubling down.
On January 19, Sharon Swingle, a Justice Department lawyer for the administration, argued in favor of Title 42 before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. She reasoned that despite the White House’s goal to “get back to a state of orderly immigration,” the Trump policy was necessary and lawful given “public health realities.”
Immigration activists are predictably incensed, saying there’s been no meaningful immigration reform since the Trump administration. The ACLU accused the Biden administration of upholding a “brutal policy against families.” Sound familiar?
Among those who arrive at the border, both Trump and Biden have turned away worthy asylum-seekers, along with the ineligible ones. Without an effective hearing system in place, both administrations have been unable to determine which migrants arrive at border with compelling cases. In fact, since 2000, approximately 40 percent of immigration-court asylum cases have been pending in a massive backlog. The difference is that Trump clearly signaled a strict border policy. Biden has done the exact opposite, exacerbating the problem.
The Biden administration sent false assurances to vulnerable migrant communities, putting their lives at risk. Among those migrants sent back to Mexico under Biden, Human Rights First has recorded 8,705 instances of kidnapping, rape, torture, robberies, and violent assaults. Some reported a fear of being murdered when they returned to their respective home countries. Many migrants are waiting in tent encampments across the border for a change in policy.
It’s unlikely that Title 42 will be rescinded anytime soon. With limited resources at the border — as well as midterm elections coming up — Biden needs this tool in place to tamp down the migrant flow.
For deserving asylum-seekers, like those hoping to escape authoritarian socialism in Venezuela, U.S. policies have failed them yet again.