USA deals with a “broken” immigration system, Secretary of National securityAlejandro Mayorkas, who wants more border agents in the face of the wave of migrants that will possibly worsen when the health regulation that allows almost all of them to be expelled is lifted.
The government of Democrat Joe Biden wants to revoke on May 23 the rule known as title 42 and which has been applied since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to immediately expel almost all undocumented migrants.
But a court is threatening to thwart his plans with a temporary restraining order that prevents the government from taking action before the May 13 court hearing that will determine whether or not Title 42 can be lifted.
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP, for its acronym in English) of the United States reported 221,303 apprehensions of undocumented immigrants along the border with Mexico last March, an increase of 33% in just one month and more than four times the average of 2014- 2019, before the pandemic.
“We inherited a broken and dismantled system that is already under pressure. It is not designed to manage the current levels and types of migration flows,” Mayorkas told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security in calling on Congress to approve long-term reforms.
Mayorkas created a plan to increase the border staff, crack down on human smugglers, increase arrest capacity for those who are not accepted on US soil, assist NGOs dealing with asylum seekers, and expedite the processing of those cases to reduce the number of cases to less than a year. time it takes for an immigrant to receive asylum. Currently the average is between 6 and 8 years, according to him.
“It will take time”
“I requested funds to hire 300 new border patrol agents, the first increase since 2011,” said the US Secretary of Homeland Security.
The surge in migrants will “test” our system, he said. “It will take time and we need the collaboration of Congress, state and local officials, NGOs and communities” to be successful.
Since the title 42 it began to be applied in March 2020, when the Republican donald trump was in power, there have been more than 1.7 million expulsions of immigrants. Some try to re-enter for which they have been expelled several times.
The decision of abandon Title 42 it was taken over by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which estimates that it is “no longer needed”.
This conclusion has raised blisters among Republican congressmen. One hundred and thirty of them criticized in a letter the “failure” of Mayorkas “in maintaining security on the border.” They complain that his plan does not include major new spending, does not consider the possibility that the CDC will reverse his decision on Title 42, and does not contemplate a promise that he will complete the controversial border wall of Trump.
Border-state Democrats running for re-election in November’s midterm elections are also unhappy with the White House, which they accuse of lacking an alternative to controlling the border once the title 42.
If this rule is repealed, immigrants will be able to apply for humanitarian entry under Title 8, which, according to some voices, will favor the entry of thousands of migrants who would be allowed to stay while their applications are examined.
On the other hand, Mayorkas reiterated this Wednesday his disagreement with the Migrant Protection Protocols (known as “Stay in Mexico” or MPP) that force asylum seekers to wait for the resolution of their cases on the other side of the border and that the Biden government is forced to maintain by judicial decision.
the secretary of National security he claimed to have received a report that accounts for “more than 1,500 incidents of murder, rape, torture and other crimes committed against people who were subject to the Stay in Mexico program.”
Faced with a “broken” immigration system, Mayorkas recalled that Biden presented an immigration bill, which has run into opposition in Congress.
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