These asylum-seekers should be welcomed just like Afghans are being welcomed. All refugees deserve protection, not just our allies.
Giulia McPherson | NBC NEWS
The United States has been consumed with the mass evacuation and resettlement effort for vulnerable Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. It’s an undertaking that’s demonstrated the ability of the U.S. government to bring tens of thousands of refugees to safety in America and marshal local resources to help them resettle in their new home.
But at the same time, the Biden administration has been quietly engaged in another series of “evacuation” flights, this time at our southern border. Rather than bringing people to safety via transit centers and, ultimately, to countries including the United States, these flights are sending vulnerable migrants and asylum-seekers back to danger — returning them to the very places they’re fleeing.
It’s a continuation of the policy begun under the Trump administration known as Title 42, which essentially bans anyone from seeking asylum at the U.S. southern border under the pretext that concerns about the spread of Covid-19 mean they must immediately be deported. Since it was first implemented in March 2020, more than 1 million migrants and asylum-seekers have been turned away.
This has meant that asylum-seekers have been expelled in violation of the United Nations’ 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, which prevents countries from returning people to places where they face threats to their lives or freedom without providing them the opportunity to apply for asylum.
The United Nations refugee agency has expressed concern over these expulsion flights, noting that those impacted are being sent back to the “very dangers they have fled in their countries of origin.” Indeed, these asylum-seekers should instead be welcomed just like Afghans are being welcomed — all refugees deserve protection, not just our allies.
While a federal judge on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing Title 42 for migrant families, the administration still has 14 days to implement the court ruling, and in any case is appealing the decision. The injunction also only applies to families, so single adults can continue to be removed.
But the U.S. can easily put in place measures that manage risks to public health and still protect the legal right to asylum. The arrival of Afghan refugees, including some whose status is not materially different from asylum-seekers, proves this. The majority of Afghans evacuated to the U.S. arrive without visas as “humanitarian parolees,” yet have been welcomed in the U.S.
While not able to help everyone, the U.S. ensured that more than 123,000 people were safely flown out of Afghanistan and has already accepted 64,000 evacuees. They have received medical screenings and access to vaccinations upon their arrival.
Those seeking security at our southern border should not be treated any differently. The U.S. response to both crises should be guided by international law, our moral obligations and our history. Since the passage of the Refugee Act in 1980, the U.S. has admitted more than 3.1 million refugees, and since 1990 more than 700,000 people have been granted asylum.
Asylum-seekers must not be forced back to the trauma and violence that they’re so desperately fleeing. The Biden administration must immediately halt flights carrying asylum-seekers back to Mexico and Haiti and fully rescind Title 42 so that everyone seeking protection can petition for safety. If the U.S. can orchestrate a historic airlift of Afghan refugees in the midst of a pandemic, we cannot use Covid as an excuse to turn away those seeking protection at our southern border.
Opinion: U.S. Border Patrol agents are using reins like whips to round up Haitian immigrants in Del Rio, Texas. What happened to Biden's more humane approach?
Elvia Díaz | ARIZONA REPUBLIC
Now U.S. Border Patrol agents are on horseback, whipping Haitian immigrants?
I couldn’t believe it. But it is true, and that is just revolting.
El Paso Times described the situation like this:
“As the Haitians tried to climb onto the U.S. side of the river Sunday afternoon, the agent shouted: ‘Let’s go! Get out now! Back to Mexico!’
“The agent menacingly swung his reins like a whip, charging his horse toward the men in the river who were trying to return to an encampment under the international bridge in Del Rio after buying food and water in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.
And is this really happening under a Democratic president who promised humane immigration methods after his Republican predecessor caged migrant children and sealed the U.S.-Mexico border to asylum seekers?
Biden is handling Del Rio all wrong
It’s just hard to fathom what’s happening. President Biden has a real problem, and he’s handling it in the worst possible way.
More than 10,000 mostly Haitians – some put that number up to 15,000 – flocked to Del Rio, Texas, seeking refuge from total chaos after multiple calamities struck their country.
Over the weekend, the White House began a massive deportation operation beginning with three flights that landed on Sunday at Haiti’s capital of Port au-Prince. Six flights are expected a day for three weeks, according to The New York Times.
The Biden administration is expelling the Haitians under Title 42, a health provision Trump invoked during the COVID-19 health pandemic. A judge halted its use but gave Biden two weeks to appeal, which he has.
I guess the White House is using any and all methods necessary to deport as many as fast as possible.
But agents on horseback, whipping them, round them up like cattle? There is lot of chatter on social media over whether the agents were using whips or reins. As if that would make it OK?
The whole tactic is just horrible. Nobody seeking asylum should be treated like an animal.
Trump was wrong, wrong, wrong to cage migrant children, and now Biden is no better. The president must call off his Border Patrol cowboys rounding up the Haitians.
MORE:
Harris condemns Border Patrol chasing Haitians on horseback: 'Human beings should never be treated like that'
Tamika Mallory Slams Biden Administration For Border Patrol Whipping Haitian Migrants: ‘Y’all Are Responsible’
No comments:
Post a Comment