A new report titled "Failure to Protect" focuses on the continued use of Title 42 — a Trump-era regulation that expels almost all asylum-seekers from the country.
The report says the regulation, which was originally justified as a pandemic-control measure, put asylum-seekers in harm’s way — keeping families, children, LGBTQ migrants and black migrants in dangerous border cities indefinitely.
Or, in the case of over 1,400 Haitian migrants, sending them back to a country rife with kidnappings and political violence.
Nicole Ramos is a lawyer with Al Otro Lado, which advocates on behalf of asylum-seekers in Tijuana. Her group, along with Human Rights First and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, worked together on the report.
“The United States is an exceptional country. We are one of the most powerful and well-resourced nations on earth. Yet the excuses 90 days into this government that Title 42 has not been repealed, really challenges that image we’re projecting to the world,” Ramos said during a live-streamed webinar on Tuesday.
The report commends the Biden administration for ending the “Remain in Mexico” program, and admitting over 6,000 asylum-seekers to the US so far in an effort to unwind the program.
But it faults Biden for backtracking on many of the promises he made before taking office — including fully restoring the asylum system along the southern border. The administration has said it needs more time to restore a system it still faults the Trump administration for derailing.
At the same time, more unaccompanied children are arriving at the southern border — a consequence of the still-closed asylum system.
“We continue to see family separation, in particular with minors traveling with non-custodial family members. In recent weeks we’ve seen 18 and 19-year-olds traveling with their younger siblings and returned to Mexico, while their siblings were sent to custody in the Office of Refugee Resettlement,” said Alexandra Miller, an attorney with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project.
The report calls for the Biden administration to rescind Title 42 and immediately restore asylum. Organizations along the border say they have enough capacity to care for arriving asylum-seekers as they arrange to reunite with families or sponsors inside the United States.
