The United States expelled hundreds of Colombians invoking a sanitary norm thate allows the deportation of undocumented migrantsUS and Colombian government sources reported this Friday.
“After discussions with the government of Colombia, in March 2022, DHS began repatriating Colombian citizens to Colombia in accordance with the public health order of the title 42“, An official from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who requested anonymity, told AFP.
The Colombian Director General of Migration, Juan Francisco Espinosa Palacios, in a video broadcast this Friday to AFP by the Colombian embassy in Washington, affirmed that it is a “totally autonomous” measure of the US government.
“In the month of March, 600 people were received on six flights, all adults, who in the face of violations of irregular entry into the United States within a framework of health regulations, have been returned to the national territory as a totally autonomous and sovereign measure of the government. ” from President Joe Biden, he says.
Title 42 was imposed by former Republican President Donald Trump and allows undocumented migrants to be expelled on the grounds that they may be carriers of Covid-19.
The number of Covid-19 cases in the United States hovers around an average of 27,000 daily in the last few days compared to a peak of 700,000 in mid-January, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which has caused several organizations and congressmen to ask Biden to suspend the application of this rule.
The DHS official states that they continue to apply Title 42 “to single adults and family units located on the southwest border.”
An official from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) specified that on March 4 it resumed flights to Colombia and “hundreds of Colombians” have been expelled under Title 42.
“All passengers undergo a medical examination before boarding”, they must wear a mask, test negative for Covid-19, have a temperature below 37.2 ºC and have no symptoms related to the coronavirus in order to travel, he told AFP this source, who requested anonymity.
Previously, the United States had already expelled to Colombia Venezuelan migrants who resided in that country and were detained when they entered the United States illegally through the border with Mexico.