Chuy rips Biden for ‘racist’ border policy

Says president using rule to unfairly deny asylum

From staff reports

U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-4th) recently joined Reps. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), and Jose Luis Correa (D-Calif.) in demanding the Biden Administration revoke a rule they say is racist and anti-immigrant.

“For nearly two years, the United States government has expelled individuals fleeing from violence and turmoil seeking refuge and protection, with no ability for these individuals to apply for asylum – actions that completely violate U.S. law and treaty commitments,” García and his colleagues said in a written statement to Biden. “This heartless policy, spearheaded by the Trump administration, must be repealed – full stop.”

In their statement, García and others did not say why Biden, their political ally, has not followed through on his campaign promise to end use of the rule, known as Title 42, more than a year after he was sworn into office.

Title 42 is a clause of the 1944 federal Public Health Services Law. It permits federal officials to halt the entry of immigrants during declared public health emergencies.

Title 42 has seldom been invoked over the last 50 years, but the Trump administration used it issue a public health order during the pandemic to rapidly expel migrants at the border, citing concerns over the spread of disease.

Immigration advocates—including García–claim Trump’s action violated federal law by preventing people from applying for asylum.

“Every single refugee in need of our help and protection must be treated humanely and have the opportunity to seek asylum without fear of being sent back to the horrors from which they fled,” García and his colleagues s aid to Biden. “As a nation, we must end this illegal and unjustifiable policy to restore meaningful access to asylum at U.S. borders and welcome with dignity the families and individuals seeking protection in the United States. We vowed to work to end the hateful, racist, and xenophobic policies of the Trump administration, and that promise must include fully revoking Title 42.”

The congressmen claimed throughout the past two years under Title 42, there have been:

• at least 8,705 reports of kidnapping, rape, trafficking, torture, and other attacks on people blocked in or expelled to Mexico under Title 42 by the federal government, including LGBTQ, black and indigenous asylum seekers targeted by cartels and corrupt officials;
• refugees returned to the countries they had fled persecution and torture, in violation of U.S. law and treaty obligations;
• at least 20,000 Haitian families and individuals, including asylum seekers, expelled or deported, to increasing danger in Haiti many without a chance to request asylum;
• thousands of children sent alone across the border to the United States by families expelled under Title 42, desperate to protect them from harm while stranded in Mexico.

García and his colleagues claimed there have been more than 90,000 expulsions at the southern border without due process, on average, each month in the past year under Biden–more than twice the monthly average of expulsions carried out under Trump.