NEW YORK, Caribbean American Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Wednesday denounced plans by the Joe Biden administration in the United States to limit migrants from the Caribbean and other places.
Late last week, the Biden administration announced that it was limiting migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti who enter the US to 30,000 each month under humanitarian parole while expelling those who attempt to cross the southwestern border.
“As the daughter of immigrants and a woman who has dedicated her life towards securing their fair and equitable access to the American dream, I have long pursued reform in a desperately out-of-date immigration system,” Clarke, whose parents hail from Jamaica, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
“Unfortunately, the recently announced reforms from President Biden and his administration fail to deliver the change migrant communities deserve and have prayed for.”
Moreover, she said, “these insufficient solutions have permitted the cruel and oppressive legacy of the Trump-era Title 42 policy to persist”, referring to the policy which grants the government the ability to take emergency action to stop the “introduction of communicable diseases” and which the Donald Trump administration used to designate hundreds of thousands of migrants for expulsion, arguing that allowing them to enter the US may increase the spread of COVID-19.
“I am far from alone in finding that tragic fact unacceptable,” added the representative for the predominantly Caribbean 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York.
“This harmful policy has for years disproportionately impacted Black migrants and created life-threatening conditions for immigrants seeking refuge at our borders. It has denied them due process entitled to them by law and the opportunity provided to them by America.
“The time has come for reform centered in equity and moral responsibility, so we may compassionately and safely welcome new Americans to our country – by this country’s founding principles,” she added.
Clarke, therefore, urged President Biden to re-evaluate his administration’s decision on the issue.
At the same time, Türk said the Biden administration’s border policy reforms “risk undermining the basic foundations of international human rights and refugee law.”
Aiming for the expected rise in so-called “expedited removals” from the United States, Türk also criticized the intention to use the COVID-19 pandemic-related Title 42 public health order even more than today.
The move will permit monthly “fast-track expulsion to Mexico” of 30,000 Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans, and Nicaraguans.
The High Commissioner welcomed the extension of the US so-called “humanitarian parole” program to include nationals of Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua – in addition to Venezuelans – but he insisted that the measure should not come at the expense of fundamental human rights, including the right to seek asylum and the right to an individual assessment of protection needs.
His call follows the UN refugee agency’s (UNHCR) call last Friday for the US administration to think again and meet international human rights standards.
Türk stressed that seeking asylum “is a human right, no matter a person’s origin, immigration status, nor how they arrived at an international border.”
“These measures appear to be at variance with the prohibition of collective expulsion and the principle of non-refoulment,” the OHCHR chief said.
He added that limiting humanitarian parole for some “cannot replace upholding the rights of all to seek the protection of their human rights.”
“Those most in need of asylum and those in vulnerable situations are unlikely to meet the restrictive requirements to be granted humanitarian parole, including having a financial sponsor in the US,” he noted.
The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organization representing over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York State, has also strongly denounced plans by the Biden administration to limit migrants from the Caribbean.
NYIC said these plans would “cruelly favor” asylum seekers with family connections and economic privilege, demanding additional protections for Caribbean and other asylum seekers.
NYIC Executive Director Murad Awawdeh told CMC that Biden’s plan to expel those who attempt to cross the border is “an attack on the humanitarian values and obligations of the United States.”
“This plan needlessly endangers the lives of those crossing the border in search of basic freedom in our country and succumbs to the fearmongering espoused by anti-immigrant conservatives,” he said. “President Biden must stop the hypocrisy of his immigration policies and proudly stand up for all refugees and asylum seekers, as he has always professed to do.”
“As Title 42 continues to be enforced by the Biden administration, cruelly subjecting asylum seekers to violence, this plan is a shameful slap in the face to those seeking safety in the United States,” Awawdeh added.
“Rather than limiting humanitarian parole for just a select few with family connections and financial privilege, the Biden administration must expand additional protections for all asylum seekers so that our country can fulfill its humanitarian obligations and provide opportunity and freedom for all,” he continued.
In remarks at the White House, Biden said his government would deny migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti the opportunity to apply for asylum if they cross the Mexican border without permission between official ports of entry.
Biden said migrants from those countries, among tens of thousands of others who endeavor monthly to cross the border, would be expeditiously returned to Mexico instead.
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