House Democrats: Free Border Crossers into U.S. to Stop Coronavirus Spread in Foreign
House Democrats: Free Border Crossers into U.S. to Stop Coronavirus Spread in Foreign Countries
by JOHN BINDER 25 Feb 2021
House Democrats are urging President Joe Biden to end migration controls at the United States-Mexico border to help slow the Chinese coronavirus in foreign countries.
In March 2020, former President Trump imposed a CDC order known as Title 42 that allows federal immigration officials to quickly return border crossers to their native countries to prevent adding to the current public health emergency in the U.S.
Nearly 460,000 border crossers have been expelled and deported from the U.S. since March 2020 thanks to Title 42. In the last four months, alone, between 62,000 to 65,000 border crossers have been expelled and deported monthly under Title 42.
A group of 61 House Democrats, though, are asking Biden to end Title 42 — arguing that the U.S. is contributing to the global spread of the coronavirus by deporting border crossers to their native countries. Instead, the House Democrats say, the border crossers should be “safely” processed and released into the U.S. interior.
“At a time when travel is restricted worldwide, and we are observing the emergence of multiple alarming COVID-19 variants, continued expulsions and deportations threaten to export the virus to already vulnerable nations,” the House Democrats write to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“Leading public health experts have repeatedly made clear that by employing sensible, science-based public health measures the United States can safeguard public health and safely process people seeking protection at our border,” the letter continues.
The full letter can be read here:
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February 23, 2021 The Honorable Alejandro MayorkasSecretaryU.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Washington, DC 20528Dear Secretary Mayorkas: We write to urge you to employ alternative forms of humanitarian relief for individuals subject to deportationfor the remainder of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also urge you to safely and effectively end all expulsionsunder title 42 of the Public Health Service Act as soon as practicable and ensure that migrants can access our
nation’s
asylum system. We welcomed
President Biden’s
Executive Orders ordering a review of the Trump administration’s anti
-asylum policies. We also applaud the department for pursuing a 100-day deportation moratorium and agreethat a thorough review of our immigration enforcement system is desperately needed after the past four years.
Much work will be required to repair the damage that was inflicted by the previous administration’s cruel
immigration agenda and we are prepared to assist with this effort however we can. We write out of deep concern about continued Title 42 expulsions and deportations that have taken place inrecent weeks, seemingly regardless of whether these migrants meet priorities for removals. In many casesthese deportees are families and children who likely pose no security threat. The Trump administrationmisused Title 42 to summarily expel hundreds of thousands of migrants while denying them due process andaccess to the asylum system in contravention of international legal obligations.
Numerous public health experts have also called on the CDC to rescind the Title 42 order as it has “no
scientific basis as a public health measure.
1
” And the experts at the CDC seem to agree.
Reportedly, in March
2020, CDC officials initially refused to comply with the administration’s demands to effectively eliminate
access at the border to our asylum system via emergency powers because they saw no valid public healthjustification.
2
Nor do Title 42 expulsions have a valid legal basis. Last May, after more than a month of obfuscation, the Trump Administration produced to Congress a deeply-
flawed “justification” of the Title 42 Order that led Yale Professor Oona Hathaway, a member of the State Department’s
Advisory Board on International Law,
to state publicly that the Trump Administration’s explanation
,
“suggests that it is not only ignoring its
international law obligations in this case, but it also, apparently, misunderstands international law altogether.
3
”
In November, a federal court ruled that these Title 42 expulsions are in fact unlawful. Although the D.C.Circuit recently lifted that injunction pending appeal, it did
not
rule that the Title 42 order was legally sound.
1
Letter to Acting HHS Secretary Cochran and CDC Director Walensky. (2021, January 28).https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/research/program-forced-migration-and-health/letter-acting-hhs-secretary-cochran-and-cdc-director-walensky.
2
Dearen, J., & Burke, G. (2020, October 3). Pence ordered borders closed after Cdc experts refused.Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/virus-out...w-york-health-4ef0c6c5263815a26f8aa17f6ea490ae.
3
Hathaway, O. (2020, May 15). The Trump
Administration’s Indefensible Legal Defense of Its Asylum Ban.
https://www.justsecurity.org/70192/the-trump-administrations-indefensible-legal-defense-of-its-asylum-ban/.
2
The Biden administration need not and should not leave this to the courts. You have the power to halt theseexpulsions by repealing the Title 42 order, and you should use it as soon as practicable. Expulsions under Title 42 actually endanger public health, including the health of enforcement officers and migrants. Manymigrants are at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 while being detained in the United States pending theirexpulsion or deportation to less-resourced countries with severely strained health systems. Haiti, for example,has only 124 ICU beds and the capacity to ventilate 62 patients for a country of eleven million.
4
The islandnation also is mired in severe economic, security, and constitutional crises, yet has received more than 900migrants since February 1. This includes a recent February 8 flight in which 72 people were deported to Port-au-Prince, including a two-month-old baby and 21 other children.
5
Even with the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, we still face an uphill battle to reachherd immunity. At a time when travel is restricted worldwide, and we are observing the emergence of multiplealarming COVID-19 variants, continued expulsions and deportations threaten to export the virus to already vulnerable nations. Leading public health experts have repeatedly made clear that by employing sensible,science-based public health measures the United States can safeguard public health and safely process peopleseeking protection at our border.
6
Mr. Secretary, the CDC order authorizing expulsions without due process under Title 42 was immoral anddangerous when issued and continues to put hundreds of thousands of people at risk. We urge you to safelyand effectively end this practice as soon as practicable and to employ alternative forms of humanitarian relieffor individuals subject to deportation until we have this virus under control. We thank you for your leadership in working to address the COVID-19 pandemic.Sincerely,
________________________FREDERICA S. WILSONMember of Congress ________________________PRAMILA JAYAPALMember of Congress ________________________GREGORY W. MEEKSChairmanHouse Foreign Affairs Committee ________________________BENNIE G. THOMPSONChairmanCommittee on Homeland Security
Wilson, Meeks, Jayapal, Tho… by John Binder
Weeks ago, 52 House Republicans wrote to Mayorkas warning him that Title 42 is the only migration control keeping the southern border from experiencing record surges of illegal immigration after Biden ended the Remain in Mexico policy and cooperative asylum agreements with Central America.
“Notably, the Trump administration’s policy to use [Title 42] is perhaps now the only policy ensuring the southern border is not immediately rushed … if title 42 is indeed rescinded, the daily illegal flow will become catastrophic overnight,” the House Republicans wrote.
As Breitbart News reported, the Biden administration is slowly releasing about 25,600 migrants enrolled in the Remain in Mexico program into the U.S. interior. Those migrants are being released into San Diego, California, and El Paso and Brownsville, Texas.
Border crossers not enrolled in Remain in Mexico do not have to undergo coronavirus tests and many do not have to adhere to quarantine requirements. In the first ten days of February, DHS has released at least 2,000 border crossers into the U.S. interior. For comparison, in December 2020 before Remain in Mexico was ended, DHS had released just 11 border crossers.
Ending migration controls is at odds with the majority of American voters. In exit polling following the 2020 presidential election, about 5-in-6 voters said closed U.S. borders were vital to slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...ign-countries/
