That craven position would be a flimsy defense in court. It’s also simply bad politics.

Biden continues to be accused of advocating open borders. It is likely that nothing he can do will placate those who supported Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. On the other hand, recent polling shows that a majority of Americans believe “immigration is a good thing” for the country, and American support for resettlement of Afghan refugees was at 81% in August. It is not necessarily true that harsh immigration policies are winning strategies.

Even if it were politically expedient to keep the border closed to those seeking safety, turning away these individuals without any opportunity to apply for protection is a violation of U.S. law, as well as of international treaties to which the U.S. is a party. The pretext of Title 42 does not make our actions any less a violation of law. This point was made quite clear by Harold Koh, a senior State Department legal advisor and former dean of Yale Law School, who has served in four presidential administrations. In a stern rebuke, Koh wrote that the use of Title 42 was “illegal” and “inhumane,” inconsistent with American values and not worthy of the Biden administration.

Just as the Trump administration invoked it in March 2020, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this summer that it would continue, the Biden administration could revoke Title 42 now, permitting asylum applications again in compliance with our legal obligations.

This misuse of Title 42 authority, a public health law, was the brainchild of former President Trump’s senior advisor Stephen Miller. Evidently not satisfied with the administration’s brutal “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced asylum seekers to await their hearings in Mexico, once COVID-19 struck Miller decided the pandemic could be used as a pretext to close the border, denying migrants the right to even seek asylum. Officials at the CDC maintained that this measure was not justified by public health considerations and only acceded as a result of sustained White House pressure.

The Title 42 policy has resulted in untold suffering. People refused entry are either expelled to Mexico, where they face kidnapping, rape and other brutal assaults, or they are forcibly returned to their home countries — regardless of the human rights violations they may encounter there. Since September, thousands of Haitians have been deported despite the U.S. government’s acknowledgement that Haiti is “grappling with a deteriorating political crisis, violence, and a staggering increase in human rights abuses.” The kidnapping for ransom of American missionaries in October highlighted the acute dangers that persist in the island nation.

Biden’s failure to roll back Title 42 policy has received sharp criticism from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, members of Congress, faith-based communities, and refugee advocates. Through it all, the Biden administration has defended Title 42 as a necessary public health measure in a time of COVID-19. This is the same claim the Trump administration made, which has been roundly debunked, including by CDC officials. Leading public health experts have called for an end to the border closure and provided detailed guidance for measures the administration could undertake to ensure community health and safety while admitting asylum seekers.

President Biden has repeatedly articulated the centrality of human rights to his administration, and the importance of American values, including respecting the rule of law. Actions speak louder than words, and this stated commitment simply cannot be squared with a policy that denies protection to desperate individuals fleeing grave violence. It is past time to put an end to the use of Title 42, and to restore asylum as required by domestic and international law.

Karen Musalo is a law professor and the founding director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Hastings College of the Law. She is also lead co-author of “Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach.”

Source: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-11-24/continuing-trumps-pretext-to-block-asylum-claims-biden-defies-the-law-and-good-politics

The post Op-Ed: Continuing Trump’s pretext to block asylum claims, Biden defies the law and good politics first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

From Guyana to Paraguay and Chile, Cuban migrants are posting notes on social networks to join the caravans, which have already created problems in Suriname because of border closures due to the coronavirus. Nearly 500 Cuban migrants, including children and pregnant women, are stranded in campgrounds there.

“I came to this country three years ago with my two children and my husband. I came from Cuba to escape the misery, but we’re in the same situation here. Without work and without assistance, living in a neighborhood with drugs and violence,” Janet Figueroa, one of the members of a caravan in Suriname, told el Nuevo Herald.

Suriname, like Guyana, allows Cubans from the island unrestricted entry, so in recent years the two countries have become jumping-off points for migrants heading for the United States or other countries with large Cuban communities, such as Chile and Uruguay.

Figueroa, 36, is traveling with her husband and two children. She is asking the Guyana government for permission to move on “in search of the American dream.”

“We don’t want to hurt anyone. We only want to get to the United States and join our relatives,” she said. Several cousins in Miami have promised to help her family if they manage to pass the tight requirements for asylum applications along the southern border.

The Suriname government has provided humanitarian assistance to the Cuban migrants and requested technical assistance from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the Red Cross, and the International Organization for Migration, according to Foreign Minister Albert Ramdin. It has also suspended flights from Cuba and Haiti to keep the crisis from escalating.

An official statement from the Cuban government, issued at its embassies in Suriname and Guyana, blamed the United States for the migration crisis. Washington provoked the wave of migration, it claimed, when it reduced the number of immigrant and tourism visas it issues each year. Havana said it’s ready to receive all Cuban citizens who want to return to the island voluntarily.

A mysterious affliction that hit U.S. and Canadian diplomats in Havana led the U.S. government to reduce its diplomatic personnel in the Cuban capital by 60 percent and process visa applications in third countries in Latin America. The affliction was likely caused by targeted microwave emissions, according to a recent report by the U.S. National Academy of Science.

The number of non-immigrant visas issued to Cubans plunged from 16,335 in 2017 to 6,959 in 2018 and to 10,167 last year. Immigration visas totaled 7,748 in 2019, according to the U.S. State Department. Washington also suspended the Cuban Family Reunification Program, leaving more than 20,000 families in limbo.

Jorge Duany, who heads the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, said a new migration crisis is unlikely even though the island is undergoing a profound economic crisis, an increase in the level of repression, and the impact of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policies.

“Since the cancellation of the ‘wet foot, dry foot’ policy the United States has deported a growing number of Cubans to their native country,” Duany said.

President Barack Obama eliminated the policy in early 2017 before leaving office. It had allowed Cubans who set foot on U.S. territory to remain but deported those intercepted at sea. Since then, applications for asylum along the southern border have soared, even though Trump administration restrictions have made it more difficult to win asylum.

“It is expected that the southern borders of the United States, with Mexico and the Caribbean, will remain hermetically sealed, at least until the Trump administration hands overpower and the situation with the pandemic normalizes,” added Duany, an expert on Cuban issues.

MORE CUBAN CARAVANS IN URUGUAY, CHILE, AND PERU

Hundreds of other Cubans are preparing to leave for the United States from Chile, Uruguay, and Peru, according to dozens of WhatsApp and other social media posts viewed by el Nuevo Herald and telephone interviews.

José Yans Pérez, a Cuban who has lived in Chile for three years but dreams of living in the United States, is one of the migrants ready to travel through Latin America to reach the U.S. border.

“The situation in Chile has become very difficult. There’s no work, and the process of becoming legal is interminable,” said Pérez, who tried to reach the United States from Cuba several times aboard makeshift boats before he emigrated to Chile.

Posts in whatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger show the Cubans organizing and detailing the process for applying for political asylum when they reach the U.S. border.

“I’ve been in Chile without papers for two-and-a-half years. Friends have been in the United States for one year and they already have residence. That’s why I am going. I don’t want to stay here, where the Cubans are last,” said Gustavo Cedeño, 46.

“Without papers you can’t work. We also don’t have access to healthcare, and now they are threatening to deport us to Cuba.”

A camp of Cuban migrants in Suriname. MARIO J. PENTÓN

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