El Paso, United States.- The number of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela caught crossing the US-Mexico border dropped sharply from December to January following new rules expelling them back to Mexico, the US Department of Homeland Security reported.
U.S. authorities found a daily average of just 115 migrants from those countries during a week-long period ending Jan. 24, down from an average of 3,367 in the week to Dec. 11, a 97 percent drop. the DHS said Wednesday.
The department attributed the decline to the expansion of a public health order known as Title 42, which was first implemented by former Republican President Donald Trump to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
On January 5, the Biden Administration announced that migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua would be deported to Mexico without the possibility of seeking asylum in the US.
Reuters reported last week that border arrests across the board dropped in January following the new policies.
Joe Biden, who intends to seek re-election in 2024, has struggled both operationally and politically with record numbers of migrants trying to cross the US-Mexico border illegally.
His move to expand the Trump-era program has angered some immigrant advocates and Democratic lawmakers who signal his promise to reverse hardline Republican border policies.
The Biden Administration has combined expulsions with new legal avenues for migrants entering by air with US sponsors, which it says will simultaneously allow up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the United States with a two year term.
Some 1,700 people from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua have entered the United States through the program in recent weeks, and thousands more have been approved to travel, a senior administration official said during a call with reporters on Wednesday. Venezuelans have been eligible for such entry since October.
A coalition of 20 US states with Republican attorneys general sued Tuesday to halt Biden’s humanitarian entry program, saying it violates federal immigration law.
The Biden official, who requested anonymity as a condition of the call, criticized the lawsuit as a “stunt” that “will lead to more illegal migration.”
