Thursday, May 11, 2023
With the end of the deportation regulation Biden fears “chaotic” conditions
Migrants wait between a barbed wire barrier and the border fence at the US-Mexico border.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa)
Thousands of people gather at the border between Mexico and the United States. After the end of restrictive immigration measures, they want to make their way to the United States. For Biden’s government, the expected migration storm is extremely delicate – and border policy is a difficult balancing act.
The United States is preparing for an onslaught of migrants and asylum seekers at the border with Mexico as a controversial corona deportation regulation expires. Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas warned of “potentially very difficult challenges” with the end of the Title 42 regulation on Friday night. US President Joe Biden acknowledged that the situation on the southern border “will be chaotic for a while.”
The US government has deployed 24,000 border patrol officers and has mobilized an additional 1,500 troops in addition to the 2,500 troops already deployed at the border to provide support. She also tightened the asylum rules in order to have a deterrent effect against illegal border crossings.
The reason for this is the expiry of Title 42 on Thursday evening at 11:59 p.m. US Eastern Time. The regulation introduced in March 2020 at the beginning of the corona pandemic under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump provides that migrants apprehended at the border with Mexico can be turned away immediately. This was justified with the fight against the corona virus. According to critics, the pandemic was only an excuse to enforce a tough border policy.
Secretary of Homeland Security: Borders are not open
The deportation regulation now ends at the same time as the end of the national corona health emergency in the USA on Friday night. But that doesn’t mean “that our border is open,” emphasized Homeland Security Minister Mayorkas. “Smugglers have been working hard for a long time to spread the misinformation that the border will be open after May 11. It won’t be. They lie.”
The minister said the government is working on ways to enter the US legally, while “imposing harsher consequences on those who choose not to go through those ways.” According to a new regulation, people should lose their right to asylum and be deported if they enter the USA illegally. There should be exceptions, among other things, if people are threatened with torture in their home country.
With the end of Title 42, the Biden government basically wants to rely on an older set of rules known as Title 8, which has been applied parallel to Title 42 in recent years. In some places, this is stricter than the Corona rules and includes penalties for attempted illegal border crossings.
Cities declare states of emergency
Tens of thousands of people are currently gathering at the border crossings. In the US state of Texas, which borders Mexico, the cities of El Paso, Brownsville and Laredo have declared states of emergency. Hundreds of people from Central American countries and South American countries such as Venezuela and Colombia are already staying there.
Asked Tuesday whether the US was prepared for a stampede of people at the border, Biden said, “That remains to be seen. It’s going to be chaotic for a while.” For the president, the crisis on the border with Mexico is politically extremely sensitive – and border policy is a difficult balancing act. The opposition Republicans accuse the Democrats of allowing hundreds of thousands of foreigners into the country unhindered and are fueling fears of an increase in crime and drug problems.
A group of Republican senators accused the government of underestimating “the crisis on our border.” You will only realize “at the last minute” that the end of Title 42 will have “devastating effects on the security of our nation”. At the same time, Biden is under pressure from the left wing of his Democratic Party. There, the president is accused of not keeping his election promise of a more humane refugee and immigration policy.
Source: ntv.de
hny/AFP
*Data protection