Photo: John Moore / Getty Images
For: The Opinion
Friday, October 4
Biden pressured over reports on Trump policies affecting immigrants
Defenders of civil and immigrant rights are demanding that the Government of President Joe Biden deliver documents that reveal the level of “crisis” at the border that has affected thousands of immigrants , who are not protected when seeking asylum.
Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) and the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (Florence Project) took this measure, after the current Administration would keep in force programs implemented by former President Donald Trump and before the “ failure ”to allow the entry of undocumented persons through a process known as humanitarian parole.
Activists indicate that the ‘parole’ is designed to allow foreigners to enter the US when there are emergency or humanitarian reasons, the groups explained, noting that the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have “complete discretion” to grant them.
Both groups filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) after since August 2021, the Florence Project has submitted humanitarian parole, and did not get the expected responses.
“The vast majority of them have been summarily ignored or denied. Recent practices are in stark contrast to pre-policy border processing procedures such as Title 42 and the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) that have effectively closed access to asylum at the border ”, they criticized.
Both measures were created by the Administration of former President Trump and if the Title 42 allows the immediate expulsion of Foreigners with the pandemic as an argument, MPP forces those who arrive requesting asylum to return to Mexico while waiting for their procedures.
The Biden Administration continues to apply these two policies, in the opinion of the groups “deeply problematic and discriminatory” , since the border is closed to vulnerable people when the border is now open to trade and tourism.
The records requested from the Government include dat on requests for humanitarian parole from 2016 to the present, broken down by country applying for citizenship.
The groups asked to know the total number of requests for humanitarian parole they have received, including the number that remain pending without adjudication or meaningful resolution.
To determine whether the current “inaction” is a mandate from White House or DHS officials, they also asked to have access to government protocols and directives around the award of humanitarian entry permits.
With information from EFE