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Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden vociferously condemned President Donald Trump’s immigration policies as “cruel and ostracizing at every turn,” including those fleeing the “cruel” government of Venezuelan socialist Nicolas Maduro. people.
Now, as the Nov. 8 election looms and more Venezuelans arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, Biden is turning to an unlikely source of a solution: his predecessor’s playbook.
Biden last week invoked Trump-era Rule 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — denying Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the opportunity to claim asylum at the border.
The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health powers to allow the U.S. to prevent migrants from seeking asylum at the border based on the need to help prevent the spread of the virus. Coronavirus disease.
Under the Biden administration’s new policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim at the southern U.S. border will be deported, and any Venezuelans who enter Mexico or Panama illegally will be ineligible to come to the United States. But U.S. airports will accept as many as 24,000 Venezuelans, similar to how Ukrainians have been accepted since the Russian invasion in February.
Immigrants can be seen shortly before lights go out at the Juventud 2000 shelter in Tijuana, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. AP Photo/Elliot Spagat)
Mexico has insisted that the United States recognize a Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for every Venezuelan it deports to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and requested anonymity.So if the Biden administration parole 24,000 Venezuelans to the US, Mexico would not have more than 24,000 Venezuelans deported from the US
Biden’s policies mark a sudden shift from the White House, which just weeks ago was slamming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans , as they let Venezuelan migrants “flee political persecution” to take buses and planes to Democratic strongholds.
“These are kids, they’re moms, and they’re fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said at the time.
Biden’s new policy quickly drew criticism from immigration advocates, many of whom were quick to point to Trump’s similarities.
Jennifer Nagda, policy director at the Center for Youth Immigration, said: “Instead of restoring asylum rights destroyed by the Trump administration… the Biden administration has dangerously accepted past failures and made it easier by explicitly allowing Venezuelan immigrants to be deported. Amplify these failures.” Children’s Rights.
The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring Venezuelans enter the U.S. in a “lawful and orderly” manner
Venezuelan migrants surrender to Border Patrol as they cross the Rio Bravo River from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico to the U.S. border on October 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez, File)
Why is there a turnaround?
For more than a year since taking office in January 2021, Biden has defied the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has used its powers to maintain a Trump-era statement that there is a public health risk and that the expulsion of asylum seekers needs to be expedited.
Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups have expressed doubts about the public health basis for allowing Section 42 to remain in effect, especially as COVID-19 spreads more widely in the United States than elsewhere.
After months of internal deliberation and preparation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on April 1 that it would end the public health order and resume normal border processing for immigrants, giving them a chance to apply for asylum in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials prepared to respond The resulting increase in the number of people crossing the border.
But officials inside and outside the White House have clashed over ending the authorities, arguing it has effectively curbed the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials.
A court order preserved Section 42 due to challenges from Republican state officials, but some in the administration have expressed calm, according to AP officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
President Joe Biden takes the stage before talking about lowering costs for American families at the East Portland Community Center in Portland, Ore., Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
A recent uptick in immigration from Venezuela amid the country’s political, social and economic instability has dashed officials’ hopes that they will finally see a calming of the chaos that has defined the border over the past year.
By August, Venezuelans had become the second largest nationality to arrive at the U.S. border after Mexicans. The situation has become increasingly unmanageable given that tensions between the United States and Venezuela mean that migrants from the country cannot be easily repatriated.
So an administration that rejected many Trump-era policies designed to stem immigration, worked to simplify the asylum process, and increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. is now turning to Article 42.
It brokered a deal to send Venezuelans to Mexico, which has agreed to accept the deportation of migrants from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador under Article 42.
Lawyers for the Ministry of Justice have continued to appeal court decisions upholding Article 42.
They oppose Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states, arguing that Section 42 is “the only safety valve to prevent this administration’s already disastrous border control policy from tumbling into total disaster.” Migrants have been deported from the United States more than 2.3 million times under Section 42 after illegally crossing the country’s land borders from Canada or Mexico, although most attempted to pass through Mexico.
The administration has announced it will stop deporting immigrants under Section 42 starting May 23 and re-detain and deport immigrants who are ineligible to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows immigrants to apply for asylum in the U.S.
“We are very disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification and expanded use of Section 42, an unrelated health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Border Witness. One removes the legal right to asylum.” Another ACLU lawsuit also seeks to end Section 42, an effort that could render the administration’s proposal useless.
“People have the right to seek asylum — no matter where they came from, how they got to the United States, and whether they have family here,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
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