A group of 70 Democratic congressmen have sent a letter to the president, Joe Biden, also a Democrat, to protest his new immigration policy on the border that restricts asylum for immigrants from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, opening a path Limited for your foster if you have a sponsor.
"Instead of proclaiming a new restriction on asylum and expanding Title 42, we commend your Administration to uphold its commitment to restore and protect the rights of those seeking asylum and refuge," the legislators wrote in the letter, which they delivered to the White House this Wednesday.
The Government announced in early January that it will allow the arrival by plane of some 30,000 citizens of each of those countries so that they reside and work in the United States for a period of two years, with a
humanitarian
parole program.
Thus, it expanded the program launched in autumn only for Venezuelans.
At the same time, it agreed with Mexico on the return of the majority of migrants from those countries who arrived at the border to request asylum under Title 42, which already affected migrants of other nationalities.
[Mother of the girls asks not to be deported to El Salvador]
Migrants wait at the border to be processed by CBP agents, in Yuma, Arizona, on January 6, 2023.Gregory Bull / AP
This program constitutes an important change in Biden's immigration policy.
Title 42 allows the expulsion without the right to request asylum of migrants intercepted at the border due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it did not include the citizens of these countries due to a lack of agreement with the Mexican Government and that of their countries of origin. , that they would not accept them back.
That changed after Biden's recent visit to Mexico, in which he agreed to the new immigration plan together with the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who promised to receive them.
As a result of this measure, the arrival of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela has been reduced by up to 97% in recent weeks, the government said on Wednesday.
This program has been brought to justice by about twenty red states, which aspire to have it suspended by a court.
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Democratic lawmakers who protested the decision also expressed concern about a recent announcement that the Biden Administration plans to issue a new rule for migrants interested in applying for asylum to start their application to the program from Mexico or some other transit country.
"In fact, this is a ban on the transit [of migrants]. The courts rejected the attempts of the Donald Trump Administration to categorically eliminate the right to asylum, when it similarly tried to force asylum seekers to seek asylum in transit countries," they wrote.
The letter was not signed by some of the most important Democratic congressmen in the House of Representatives and the Senate, according to The New York Times.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is the first migrant to hold that position, denied that the proposal is similar to Trump's.
While Republicans have taken advantage of the increase in illegal border crossings to attack the Biden government for not being tough enough.