HAVANA.- Until the end of January, the humanitarian words has benefited more than 357,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, according to the deputy undersecretary of the Office of Public Affairs of the US Department of Homeland Security, Luis Miranda.
However, this program, which aims to prevent migrants from taking unsafe routes to reach the US borders, does not has alleviated the migration crisis and the number of approved cases is very distant from the number of migrants who illegally cross the border.
Far from reducing irregular immigration, The migration crisis with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people continues to rise. Since August, there have been more than 10,000 daily arrests of migrants. Fiscal year 2023 concluded with 3.2 million encounters of undocumented migrants at the border.
Miranda explained that “because there is greater demand for places” they are currently processing “30,000 travel permits per month”, however there are questions about the speed and effectiveness in processing the cases.
The humanitarian parole process is delayed due to the high demand for applications and the strictness of the applicant evaluation process.
Migration, campaign issue
The issue of the United States border with Mexico is central to the 2024 presidential campaign, with strong criticism from the Republican opposition to the immigration and open border policies of the Biden administration, which cause a great impact on city budgets.
Republicans demand more restrictive policies that would sharply reduce asylum protections.
The majority of migrants use the argument of “need for asylum” when arriving at the border even if they do not qualify to request that protection; However, this argument allows them to enter the country even if they later have to appear to defend it in the Immigration courts.
It is not “sustainable”
Recently, Republican Senator Marco Rubio reaffirmed his position against the humanitarian parole system.
Rubio expressed concerns about abuse of the system due to the large influx of people. He argued that while they are willing to help those already in the country, they cannot allow large numbers of people to reach the US border without an orderly process. According to the Republican senator from Florida, this is not sustainable and could encourage uncontrolled migration.
The Democratic administration defends the humanitarian parole, arguing that it has contributed to the reduction of detentions at the border and has discouraged dangerous migration routes. However, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) records reveal an unprecedented increase in immigration in the US with approximately 9,000,000 encounters since Biden is in the White House.
Source: With information from martinoticias.com / AP
