Washington.
Biden is under pressure: In Mexico, 150,000 refugees are sitting on packed suitcases – now soldiers are supposed to strengthen border protection.
They sleep on cardboard, torn blankets, plastic bags or on the asphalt: 2000 Asylum seekers, who have taken up residence in the shadow of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in El Paso, Texas. Out of necessity, because temporary shelters are overcrowded.
For the border town near Mexico But that’s just a tepid foretaste of what can happen if a bulwark of US deportation practice finally falls this Thursday. “Title 42”, a regulation put into place under the pretext of health protection (Corona), was put into effect three years ago in the face of criticism from human rights organizations under President Donald Trump.
Refugees in the USA: Under Biden, 2.5 million were turned away
His successor Joe Biden maintained the controversial measure despite announcements to the contrary. Since taking office in January 2021, more than 2.5 million asylum seekers have been turned away at the border. Without “Title 42,” El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser expects an unprecedented one rush: “Five-digit numbers, all at once. Over days.”
That’s not far-fetched. Across from El Paso alone on the Mexican side in Ciudad Juarez, around 35,000 poverty refugees from Latin and Central America have been sitting on their packed suitcases for weeks to get to the first place they come across Opportunity to get to the USA.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, there are around 150,000 refugees in northern Mexico starting blocks. Leeser, like his counterparts in other border towns of Laredo and Brownsville, has already declared a state of emergency. Local politicians send calls for help to Washington every day. “We can no longer handle the onslaught.”
Government sends 1,500 soldiers south
But support from the capital comes in homeopathic doses. President Biden has ordered 1,500 troops to the border to counter the ever-increasing pressure from Republicans. They are to stand passively by the side of the CBP border guard. border guards expect up to 13,000 asylum seekers per day from the end of this week. Normal would be 6000.
To bring the numbers down, want that White House create a buffer around the roughly 3,100-kilometre-long border with its southern neighbor. Anyone who wants asylum in the USA will have to go to immigration centers in Colombia and Guatemala (which do not yet exist) and make an appointment with the US border authorities via a smartphone app. Without it you will be sent back.
Alone, the numbers are beyond the capacities. And the app often doesn’t work, civil rights attorneys say. Unlike in previous years, many U.S. border cities are now complaining about the new arrivals, although most only stay a few days before they have the money to travel inland by bus or train, where relatives or friends are a first port of call.
Republicans want to overthrow Secretary of Homeland Security
Almost all detention centers along the border with Mexico are bursting at the seams. In Brownsville, where a man with multiple convictions drove his car into a group of mostly male asylum seekers from Venezuela over the weekend and killed eight people, a police officer was summarily arrested baseball field repurposed. “We need to get these people off the streets,” Red Cross officials say.
Also read: USA: Florida sends refugees to Reichen Island
The Republicans slaughter the partially helpless acting government work in Washington to the best of their ability: America has criminally open borders. Crime is rampant. The border wall started by Donald Trump must be built further. These are relevant conservative slogans. They demand the rigorous repatriation of the refugees and want to remove Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas from office.
Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott demonstratively ordered the deployment of 10,000 National Guardsmen and a force of special investigators ordered to the border. His motto: “Texas must protect itself, Washington fails.”
But Joe Biden is also being approached from within his own party. The left wing opposes “inhumane treatment” of those in need of protection. From the point of view of Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, the fact that the President is sending soldiers to the border sends the wrong signal: “migrants are looking for work and the absence of violence, gang crime and a lack of prospects. You are not a threat.”
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