Clarke decries Biden administration’s border plans

NEW YORK:

Congresswoman Yvette Clarke has criticised the recently announced immigration reforms proposed by the Biden administration, which she says fails to deliver the change migrant communities deserve and had hoped for.

Moreover, she said, the solutions have permitted the persistence of the ‘cruel and oppressive legacy of the Trump-era’ Title 42 policy, and disproportionately impacted black migrants.

“I urge President Biden to re-evaluate his administration’s decision,” said Congresswoman Clarke.

Under the new plan, the United States will accept up to 30,000 Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans each month, while expelling those who arrive at the border unlawfully.

To be eligible, applicants would need to have a US sponsor and need to pass security vetting.

The White House is expanding the pandemic-era programme, allowing the administration to quickly expel people from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti who illegally cross into the country from Mexico.

As part of the plan, Biden said they are also expanding some legal pathways. Those include allowing migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti who have family or other pre-existing ties to the United States to enter the country legally.

“My message is this — if you’re trying to leave Cuba, Nicaragua or Haiti, ... or have agreed to begin a journey to America, do not. Do not just show up at the border,” Biden said. “Stay where you are and apply legally from there.”The US will also look to increase the numbers for refugees accepted - up to 20,000 refugees from Latin American and Caribbean countries this year, and launch an online appointment portal to reduce overcrowding and wait times at US ports of entry.

Denied due process

President Biden announced the plans at the White House ahead of meetings in Mexico City with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “Instead of safe and orderly process at the border, we’ve a patchwork system that simply doesn’t work as it should,” Biden said recently.

The president said the United States doesn’t have enough asylum officers or personnel to determine whether people qualify for asylum. He said there are not enough judges to adjudicate claims to see whether those applying for asylum meet the standards required by law.

Biden urged migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti to use an expanded parole system to apply for asylum from outside the United States. He assured that his administration was stepping up resources to handle applications more quickly.

A senior administration official commended the measures, noting:”We view this as one of the most significant achievements of the Venezuela process: fewer people risking their lives and their entire life savings at the hands of human smugglers.”

But Clarke has rapped what she says is a ‘desperately out-of-date immigration system’ and called the measures ‘insufficient solutions’.

“Unfortunately, this harmful policy has for years disproportionately impacted black migrants and created life-threatening conditions for immigrants seeking refuge at our borders. It has denied them due process entitled to them by law and the opportunity provided to them by America,” a release from her office noted.

Congresswoman Clarke said that the time has come for reform that is centred in ‘equity and moral responsibility’.

“But, let me be clear: our nation owes these individuals and families more than the apologies and empty words they are so tragically accustomed to. They deserve our promise for a better, more accepting, more loving future. They deserve an America to call home. And I intend for them to have both,” she said.

Clarke, who has been in Congress since 2007, represents New York’s Ninth Congressional District, which includes Central and South Brooklyn.

- L.H