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Washington DC – U.S. immigration advocates urge the International Human Rights Commission to ask the Biden administration to stop using Heading 42, A public health directive that allows the United States to immediately deport most immigrants who reach its borders.
Yale Law School’s Lowenstein Project submitted an urgent request (PDF) Submitted to the Inter-American National Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) on Thursday, a department of the Organization of American States whose mission is to protect human rights in the Americas.
The request for “precautionary measures” was submitted on behalf of 31 asylum seekers who have been deported from the United States or who have not attempted to enter the United States. Because of the requirements of Article 42, the petitioner believes that the policy exposes asylum seekers to a “serious and imminent threat” .
The human rights organizations mentioned in the petition, including the Sea Sky Bridge Alliance, Human Rights First, and Al Otro Lado, called for immigrants to be allowed to apply for asylum in the United States and called for the cancellation of the policy.
“What we urge the committee to do is to ask the US government to stop this process and stop banning the entry of these and others,” James Cavallaro, the former chairman and petitioner of IACHR, told reporters. Thursday.
Cavallaro added that according to Article 42, most immigrants cannot apply for asylum in the United States, which exposes people to “serious and urgent risks to their lives and well-being”. [and] For their physical integrity”.
Haitian immigrants and asylum seekers are being sent home from the U.S. and Mexico [Mexico’s National Institute of Immigration/Handout via Reuters]Pressure on Biden
According to the IACHR website, “preventive measures are a protection mechanism” through which the committee “requires a country to protect one or more people in serious and emergency situations from irreparable harm”.
The petition has put further pressure on Joe Biden’s government, who has been struggling to deal with the surge in the number of immigrants arriving at the US-Mexico border after fleeing poverty, violence and climate change. disaster In their home country.
Article 42 was first invoked by former President Donald Trump in March 2020, and his government pursued strict anti-immigration policies to allow U.S. immigration officials to quickly deport asylum-seekers who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The measure points to the need to protect the country from the further spread of COVID-19, but rights groups say this is a disguise Keep out asylum seekers -They have repeatedly called on the Biden administration to revoke it.However, although Biden exempted children traveling alone from the removal of Article 42, he has Keep the policy in place.
However, IACHR’s petition was filed in various attempts to terminate the use of Article 42.
In a recent case, rights groups stated that the rule should not apply to families with children. Although the court made a ruling in their favor on September 16, the Biden administration appealed the decision, and a judge of the Federal Court of Appeals stated on September 30 that the government can continue to expel the family members.
One of the IACHR petitioners, Tami Goodlette, director of litigation at the Center for Refugee and Immigration Education and Legal Services (RAICES), said that the Biden administration is working hard to maintain a rule that violates international law and U.S. law.
“The Biden administration is rejecting our laws in a terrible way, rejecting international norms, expelling people from our country, and preventing people from seeking asylum,” Goodlett said.
‘I am afraid’
Asylum seekers from El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria and Yemen were included in the petition on Thursday.
One said that although she wanted to seek asylum in the United States, she was worried about what might happen at the border. “I am worried that if we go to a port of entry or even cross the border, we will be deported and killed immediately,” the woman said in a phone call with reporters on Thursday. The woman’s name only has the initials of TBC. .
The 22-year-old gay said that she fled Jamaica in August with her partner, a 23-year-old SAF, who also received threats and violence in the petition because of her sexual orientation.
Since then, the couple have been living in an asylum in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, waiting for an opportunity to apply for asylum in the United States. “So are we Not safe here in Mexico We are trapped here. We face discrimination in Mexico and fear of violence because of our skin color and we are lesbian,” TBC said.
Joe Biden’s administration exempts children who are not accompanied by a parent or guardian from the Article 42 expulsion requirement [Daniel Becerril/Reuters]Title 42 Dismissal
The petition was also filed after a desperate situation at the U.S.-Mexico border. Thousands of Haitian immigrants and asylum-seekers were subsequently deported, arousing widespread criticism.
Last month, nearly 15,000 Haitian immigrationAfter crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico, many children, including many children, camped under a bridge in Texas, hoping for asylum.
The U.S. responded quickly Detention and deportation According to Article 42, thousands of people returned to their home countries that were hit by the crisis, while thousands of others returned to Mexico for fear of being deported. Human rights organizations that have been monitoring deportation flights said that since September 19, the United States has deported more than 7,000 Haitians from more than 70 planes.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Mexico deported 129 Haitians to the capital Port-au-Prince, which was the second such flight.A week ago, Mexican authorities deported 70 HaitianIncluding children, this is called “voluntary return.”
A video circulated on social media late Wednesday appeared to show a man jumping off a flight to Port-au-Prince before being chased by Mexican authorities. “Is this what the Mexican government calls “voluntary” return?” Human Rights Watch Americas Director Jose Miguel Vivanco asked on Twitter.
In this video, a man jumped down the stairs and ran across the tarmac. Under the hunt of the Mexican Immigration Service, he fled the plane that sent him back to Haiti.
Is this what the Mexican government calls “voluntary” return?
(Video via @polotuits) https://t.co/qOyam0Kvja pic.twitter.com/DK1Wvg78rb
-Jose Miguel Vivanco (@JMVivancoHRW) October 7, 2021
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