Tag Archive for: border

Experts Say Biden’s Latest Immigration Proposal Will Do Little To Alleviate Border Crisis

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President Joe Biden is pledging to get tough on the border, but the measures he proposed won’t alleviate the crisis unless he starts enforcing the laws on the books, immigration experts say.

At the center of Biden’s plan to deter migrants from flooding to the border is a mobile phone application that allows migrants in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba to apply for asylum from their home country. But critics say that until the Biden administration enforces federal law that mandates the detention of all migrants, even those with credible asylum claims, until they come before an immigration judge, migrants will continue to flood to the border.

Without enforcing that law, those who cross the southern border and claim a credible fear of returning home will simply be released into the United States. Biden’s proposal, which makes it easier for migrants to get into the country, sidesteps that central problem, experts say.

“This program started with Ukraine, expanded to Venezuela, and now includes three other countries. It will be expanded further and further because the Biden administration looks for any way to staunch the flow at the border that doesn’t include enforcing the laws,” a senior Department of Homeland Security official told the Washington Free Beacon. “They have learned nothing in two years and figure packing airports with immigrants will relieve the pressure amassing at the border. Something for Americans to think about as they experience long lines at customs.”

Given court backlogs, asylum seekers may not see an immigration judge for years. In the meantime, they can live in the United States, get work permits, and apply for social services in some cities and states. Even if their asylum claims are ultimately denied, the Biden administration has ground deportations to a halt, with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement removing the smallest number of illegal aliens since 2015.

Although Biden pointed to studies showing that pilot versions of the program led to a lower number of Venezuelans applying for asylum, the total number that aimed to apply is unknown due to migrants who were never detained by law enforcement. In 2022, Customs and Border Protection recorded more…

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Mexico boosts border security to stop child migrants

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posted March 22, 2021 at 09:00 am

by 
AFP

Mexico will step up security along its southern border with Guatemala to stop child migrants crossing on their way to the United States, the authorities said Friday.

The announcement comes after an increase in flows of undocumented migrants heading north following US President Joe Biden’s immigration reforms.

The operations on the southern border are aimed at protecting child migrants who are “exploited by criminal networks,” the National Migration Institute (NMI) said.

Patrols will use drones and night vision equipment for surveillance in areas where undocumented migrants are known to cross the border, it said.

Since January more than 4,000 Central American minors have been identified who “traveled irregularly in Mexican territory,” according to the NMI.

People traffickers are telling migrants to bring children to make it easier to enter Mexico and the United States, it said.

According to social workers in Mexico’s northeastern city of Matamoros, children are brought by parents or relatives to the border and sent over the border alone.

Once across, they are handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services, which helps them connect with family contacts inside the United States.

Mothers with small children are also sometimes allowed to stay, while undocumented adults crossing over alone are swiftly deported.

Facing growing political pressure, Biden this week urged migrants not to come.

Mexico’s southern border has been patrolled since 2019 by the National Guard to stop migrant caravans crossing over.

On Thursday Mexico announced restrictions on non-essential land traffic at the frontier with Guatemala that it said were aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19.

The move coincided with a pledge by the United States to send AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines to Mexico to help alleviate a shortage of doses.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said…

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Pakistan’s Baluchis Protest Iranian Treatment Of Ethnic Brethren After Border Shootings

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Dozens of ethnic Baluch rights activists have staged a protest in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi to condemn the killing of their ethnic brethren by Iranian border guards last month.

The protest comes amid reports of violent unrest and Internet blackouts in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province triggered after security forces killed cross-border fuel smugglers.

Human Rights Watch last month said at least 10 people were killed at the Saravan border area near Pakistan on February 22, although the number of dead may be higher.

In the wake of the killings, there have been reports of armed men attacking Iranian government buildings and security forces near the border, prompting a harsh crackdown.

In Karachi, the protesters demanded of the Iranian government stop using violence against smugglers and protesters who have few other means of earning a living in the poverty-stricken region.

They also demanded compensation for those who have been killed and injured.

Sistan-Baluchistan, one of Iran’s poorest provinces, is a volatile area where drug smugglers and militant groups operate along a porous border with Pakistan, which also faces an ethnic Baluch separatist insurgency and a brutal state crackdown that has killed thousands of people since 2004.

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