US deports 10,000 illegal aliens at the border during coronavirus outbreak
US expels 10,000 migrants at the border during coronavirus outbreak
Nick Miroff
23 hrs ago
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has carried out nearly 10,000 summary deportations or “expulsions” since March 21, using emergency public health measures that have given US Customs and Border Protection broad authority to bypass immigration laws, CBP officials said Thursday.
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The measures have allowed the agency to quickly turn away most unauthorized migrants - sending them back across the Mexican border. The moves have dramatically slashed the number of detainees held in border stations, where they fear the coronavirus could spread, the officials said. CBP currently has fewer than 100 detainees in custody, down from nearly 20,000 at this time last year during last year’s border crisis, officials said.
Since the implementation of the rapid expulsions, unlawful border crossings have dropped 56%, said acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan. Morgan also acknowledged that the United States has all but closed its borders to asylum seekers who are fleeing persecution, including those who attempt to enter legally at US ports of entry.
"Those who are undocumented or don't have documents or authorization are turned away," Morgan said.
Democratic lawmakers have accused the administration of defying US laws and exceeding the authority of the coronavirus public health order, but Morgan defended the emergency measures as a necessary step to stop the spread of the disease.
"This is not about immigration," Morgan said. "This is about public health. This is about putting forth aggressive mitigation and containment strategies."
CBP said the number of migrants detained at the border fell to 33,937 in March, down 7 percent from February. Single adults from Mexico accounted for 70 percent to 75 percent of those taken into custody, and most of the remainder were from Central America's Northern Triangle countries: Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
The Mexican government has agreed to accept the rapid return of migrants from those nations at the border under an agreement reached with the Trump administration last month.
The recent expulsions include children who would otherwise be protected from rapid removal by US anti-trafficking laws. Since the emergency order took effect, the United States has expelled nearly 400 underage migrants, according to the most recent tally by the Reuters news agency. The minors were released into Mexico or boarded onto planes and flown back to Central America without being transferred to the care of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
In a letter Wednesday to acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said the Trump administration's use of a 1944 health emergency law to suspend due process at the border is not legal.
"Contrary to existing law, individuals, families, and children are now unable to sufficiently make claims for asylum, seek other forms of humanitarian protection, and, in some instances, are being expelled to countries in which they fear persecution," the senators wrote.
"DHS has essentially determined that executive branch officials can all but ignore the long-standing federal laws pursuant to an executive branch interpretation of a law enacted in 1944," they said. "This amounts to a startling expansion of executive power under the guise of a global pandemic response."
The average amount of time it takes agents to expel border-crossers to Mexico under the emergency protocols is just 96 minutes. The agents record migrants' personal data and biometric info, then load them into vans for rapid return to the nearest border crossing.
No medical exams are performed unless the person is in distress.
Morgan said migrants who state a fear of harm if sent back to Mexico are considered for an exemption from the public health order on “a case-by-case basis.” According to an internal memo obtained by ProPublica, border agents need the approval of supervisors to consider such an exemption.
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