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Migrant Defenders Slam Biden for 'Reckless' Deployment of 1,500 Troops to Southern Border
"If this were Trump, we would all be losing our shit but since it is a Democrat, it's just a meh," said one critic.
May 02, 2023
Human rights defenders on Tuesday condemned the Defense Department's plan to deploy 1,500 active duty soldiers to the southern border for "non-law enforcement duties," with numerous activists urging the Biden administration to instead address the root causes of migration and improve the process for people seeking asylum in the United States.
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III approved a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) request for an additional 1,500 troops to bolster Customs and Border Protection (CBP) efforts along the southwestern border with Mexico for 90 days. There are already 2,500 troops deployed on the border.
According to a DHS statement, the 1,500 soldiers "will be performing non-law enforcement duties such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support."
\u201cWe strongly condemn the Biden administration's plan to further militarize the U.S. southern border. We demand a human rights based approach to forced #migration that addresses the root causes of migration and upholds human dignity. https://t.co/Qeam6ecFsK\u201d— Presente.Org (@Presente.Org) 1683050928
U.S. troops "have never, and will not, perform law enforcement activities or interact with migrants or other individuals in DHS custody," the agency added. "This support will free up DHS law enforcement personnel to perform their critical law enforcement missions."
The deployment comes ahead of the planned May 11 termination of Title 42, a public health order invoked by the Trump and Biden administrations to deport more than 2.7 million asylum-seekers under pretext of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The administration has had months to prepare for a return to normal asylum processing when TItle 42 ends," Bilal Askaryar, interim manager of the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign for migrant rights, said in a statement.
"Instead of sending U.S. troops to intimidate people seeking safety and attempt to satisfy his critics, President [Joe] Biden should send funding to local communities eager to welcome their new neighbors," Askaryar argued.
\u201cPeople fleeing violence and persecution to seek safety in the U.S. deserve to be met with compassion \u2013 not military troops.\n\nIt's past time that Biden focused on creating a robust and humane system to screen and welcome people in search of safety. https://t.co/7M0GZeQovd\u201d— ACLU (@ACLU) 1683061627
Laurie Ball Cooper, U.S. legal director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), said that "sending troops to the border sends the wrong message."
"The Biden administration is playing into the hands of anti-immigrant zealots who are attempting to politicize and demonize the processing of asylum-seekers at the border," she added.
Tuesday's announcement comes just days after the Biden administration released a plan to expand refugee resettlement and family reunification parole in the Americas, with migrant rights activists welcoming some aspects of the policy while warning that provisions restricting the rights of asylum-seekers undermined the effort.
\u201cBiden to deploy 1,500 active-duty soldiers to southern border, supplementing the 2,500 National Guard troops and 19,000 Border Patrol agents already there.\n\nMilitarized border enforcement has killed over 1500 migrants on U.S. soil since Biden took office \u2014 an all-time record.\u201d— Max Granger (@Max Granger) 1683047666
The U.S. will open immigration processing centers throughout Latin America, while expanding access to CBP One, a mobile app through which asylum-seekers can theoretically schedule an appointment to present themselves at a port of entry.
However, the app has been plagued by glitches—including difficulty recognizing the faces of would-be applicants with darker skin—that have rendered it inaccessible to many asylum-seekers. On Sunday, John Oliver, host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight," denigrated the app as "asylum Ticketmaster."
Furthermore, the Biden administration has proposed a rule that would require migrants to seek asylum in the first country they enter after leaving their homeland and criminalize those who fail to do so before presenting themselves at a U.S. port of entry—a clear violation of international law similar to the openly xenophobic policies of former President Donald Trump.
In response to Tuesday's announcement, Julio Ricardo Varela, president of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Futuro Media Group, tweeted, "If this were Trump, we would all be losing our shit but since it is a Democrat, it's just a meh."
\u201c"The southern border is already highly militarized. Deploying more troops is a reckless political ploy that serves only to legitimize racist and xenophobic fear-mongering," says Andrea Carcamo, Policy Director of Freedom for Immigrants.\u201d— Freedom for Immigrants (@Freedom for Immigrants) 1683054893
Other migrant advocates connected the dots between decades of destabilizing U.S. policy and action in Latin America—including supporting a genocidal regime in Guatemala and right-wing dictatorship during El Salvador's civil war—with mass migration.
Instead of deploying troops, the Biden administration "must restore the right to asylum and prioritize addressing the factors causing people to flee to the U.S., such as the growing authoritarian governments in Central America, endemic corruption, an exclusive economic model, and poverty," said Vicki Gass, executive director of the Latin America Working Group.
"Until these are addressed, people will continue to look for a better way of life," Gass added. "A military solution is not the answer."
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Activists Implore Biden to Eschew 'Brutal' Trade-Offs in New Migrant Policy
"The Biden administration should focus on measures like increasing refugee resettlement and regular pathways and abandon its plan to impose an asylum ban that would be a legal, moral, and political mistake," said one advocate.
Apr 27, 2023
While welcoming parts of the Biden administration's newly announced plans to expand refugee resettlement and family reunification parole in the Americas, migrant rights advocates on Thursday warned that provisions restricting the rights of asylum-seekers undermined the policy.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday unveiled sweeping measures to address migration from Latin American and Caribbean nations to the United States ahead of next month's termination of Title 42, a public health order invoked by the Trump and Biden administrations to deport more than 2.7 million asylum-seekers under pretext of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Title 42 is set to expire on May 11 with the end of the Covid-19 national public health emergency. Experts say as many as 10,000-13,000 migrants could arrive at the southern border each day after Title 42 ends.
The administration will open immigration processing centers throughout Latin America, while expanding access to CBP One, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection mobile app through which asylum-seekers can schedule an appointment to present themselves at a port of entry.
\u201cWATCH: @SecMayorkas and @SecBlinken announce new regional migration management measures that the United States government will implement with partners in South and Central America when the CDC\u2019s Title 42 public health order lifts: https://t.co/9QbxivzbSh\u201d— Homeland Security (@Homeland Security) 1682610020
U.S. partners, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration, will screen migrants at the processing centers to determine if they are eligible to enter the United States before they travel to the southern border.
Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security is creating a new family reunification parole process for El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia.
The U.S. is also doubling the number of refugees from Western Hemisphere nations while continuing to accept up to 30,000 individuals per month from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti as part of an expanded parole process announced earlier this year.
However, the new policy will prohibit asylum-seekers who crossed through a third country on their way to the U.S.-Mexico border, unless they had previously applied for and been denied asylum elsewhere or used CBP One to obtain an appointment at a U.S. point of entry.
\u201c\u201cThe actions announced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) include finalizing a regulation that presumes those who cross into the U.S. at the southwest border without authorization or having used a lawful pathway are ineligible for asylum.\u201d That\u2019s brutal\u201d— Naeem Baig (@Naeem Baig) 1682639183
"The Biden administration is rightly expanding refugee resettlement from the Americas, an overdue step towards addressing a longstanding gap for people in need of international protection," said Eleanor Acer, senior director of refugee protection at Human Rights First.
"This initiative should swiftly bring refugees to safety and not be used to reduce the resettlement of refugees from other regions," Acer added. "The Biden administration should focus on measures like increasing refugee resettlement and regular pathways and abandon its plan to impose an asylum ban that would be a legal, moral, and political mistake."
\u201cExpanded & improved legal migration pathways by the Biden Admin is a crucial step in the right direction. We, however, urge the Admin not to move forward with the proposed asylum ban or pair announcements on legal pathways with hardline deterrence efforts. https://t.co/331nC7FXgJ\u201d— FWD.us (@FWD.us) 1682634158
The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), a New York-based legal aid organization, summed up the sentiment of numerous advocacy groups, writing that while it "welcomes the expansion of family reunification parole programs and refugee processing in the Americas," it "strongly opposes doing so as a trade-off for limiting the legal rights of people seeking asylum in the United States."
"While today’s announcement recognizes the protection needs of people seeking asylum at the border, the administration's simultaneous pursuit of an asylum ban and other immigration restrictions runs counter to the aim of expanding humanitarian protections," the group added.
IRAP policy director Sunil Varghese said in a statement that "expanding family reunification parole pathways and refugee processing for displaced people in the Americas is long overdue, but we cannot ignore that the Biden administration is proposing a Faustian bargain by simultaneously seeking to implement a Trump-era asylum ban at the U.S-Mexico border, effectively slamming the door shut on countless others in need."
"Framing USRAP as a border management tool risks further politicizing a program already at a crossroads, and should not come at the expense of asylum protections," Varghese added. "There should be more pathways to safety for people in the Americas, not fewer."
\u201cBREAKING: The Biden admin announced new measures to address regional migration.\n\n@IRAP welcomes expanding family reunification and refugee processing in the Americas, but strongly opposes doing so as a trade off for limiting the right to seek asylum. \nhttps://t.co/i3G4beaFD1\u201d— IRAP (@IRAP) 1682616880
IRAP recommends the Biden administration expand its capacity to adjudicate asylum applications, improve the efficiency of the interview and vetting process—including by incorporating video technology—and ensure due process and transparency in refugee processing.
Katharina Obser, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice program at the Women's Refugee Commission, an international advocacy group, said in a statement that WRC "welcomes the administration's recognition of the need for more pathways to protection for people displaced in Latin America and the Caribbean."
"However, WRC remains deeply concerned that these measures come at the expense of the ability to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border," she continued. "Although today's announcement suggests more appointments will become available for people seeking asylum using the CBP One application—and WRC supports increasing capacity for asylum processing at ports of entry—the administration should also maintain the right to seek asylum without an appointment for those who cannot wait or cannot use the application."
"Ultimately, the expansion of access to one set of protections—such as resettlement, parole, and family reunification—should not come at the expense of others, such as access to asylum at the border," Obser added. "We had hoped to be able to express more support and optimism about the administration's proposed plans as Title 42 finally comes to a long overdue end. Ultimately, while we welcome additional migration pathways and regional processes, we call on the administration to again reconsider its approach to asylum at the U.S. border."
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