Global Courant 2023-05-15 13:13:53
STORY: The Biden administration says migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border unexpectedly fell, not rose, after the end of Title 42, and they attribute that to a return to policies that penalize illegal entry.
After the so-called Title 42 immigration program expired last week, criminal sanctions have been reintroduced at the border.
Title 42 allowed officials to expel migrants quickly without an asylum procedure, but imposed no penalty.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas:
“In fact, over the past two days, the U.S. Border Patrol has seen a drop of about 50% in the number of people found at the southern border compared to numbers earlier this week before Title 42 ended at midnight on Thursday. ”
The group of 15 migrants was one of the first to be turned away after the order expired.
A Guatemalan woman told Reuters she was ordered to turn herself in to immigration at a checkpoint on a bridge between the US and Mexico.
Under a new policy, people caught entering the US illegally will be deported and not allowed to try again for five years, even by legal means.
The White House now faces a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which claims the latest restrictions violate US laws and international agreements.
Mayorkas denied those allegations, saying the government has led “the biggest expansion of legal avenues ever” for people seeking asylum.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas:
“An individual must have access to those legal avenues that we have made available to him. If they haven’t, they must have sought help in one of the countries they traveled through and were denied. And if they have not done so either, it is not an asylum ban, but they do have a higher proof threshold that they must meet. That is a presumption of incapacity that can be overcome.”
Meanwhile, prisons, hospitals and cities on the border have struggled after thousands of migrants entered US territory before the end of Title 42 last week.
There has also been little bipartisan movement toward resolution in Congress.
Just before it passed, House Republicans passed legislation that would resume construction of a border wall and require asylum seekers to apply for U.S. protection outside the country, but the law is unlikely to be passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
