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National Immigration Forum leader suggests turning to UN agencies for help in tracing and treating family units seeking asylum
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Transnational criminal organizations are the only ones to have benefited from Trump-era immigration policies, according to a national immigration expert.
Other parties involved, from the migrants themselves to traders, tourism service providers and business organizations on both sides of the border, find themselves in a more difficult situation than before, he says.
” Whether it be Title 42 or (Migrant Protection Protocols) or whatever we’ve seen over the past four years, it has stuck migrants against the border and often left them victims of cartels, â€said Ali Noorani, president and head of the management of the National Forum on Immigration. . “We have all seen stories of kidnapping, extortion and violence. It is clear that people have been placed in increasingly desperate situations.
Noorani has spent the last two days in El Paso and Juarez, Mexico, for a fact-finding visit before a Biden administration expected cancellation of Title 42 public health rule which enabled US immigration authorities to expel unauthorized migrants quickly.
The controversial policy to contain the cross-border spread of COVID-19 initiated by Trump and pursued by Biden has not discouraged unauthorized migration, but has instead forced migrants to try again multiple times or to turn to smugglers for help, according to migrant advocates.
Biden reportedly intends to exempt family units from Title 42 evictions starting in the next few days or weeks, but questions remain as to how many families will try to meet and if U.S. government agencies can process them and if the groups nonprofit social services can help them in a timely and effective manner.
“The Biden administration, the Mexican government and international organizations need to come up with a plan,†Noorani said. “The MPP’s flashback provides an important model for how this can be done so that families can engage with (UN agencies), get their COVID test and go through a safe and orderly process that protects cartels and allows them to enter the United States and advocate for asylum.
As part of Biden’s cancellation of the Migrant Protection Protocol program, the United Nations Refugee Agency has set up a web portal to register and screen asylum seekers rather than letting them overwhelm them. officers at US ports of entry. The agency shared information with CBP, which in turn allowed the first group of eligible petitioners to approach the border. But it was another UN agency that administered the COVID-19 tests at a shelter in Juarez, then drove the migrants by bus to a designated port of entry where they handed over their documents and were cleared. to enter the country.
Noorani said he felt both anticipation about the possibility of helping eligible families enter as well as concern about volume management on the part of organizations on both sides of the border.
“People are increasingly worried about what will happen in the next four to six weeks. They worry about capacity issues, about cartels that take advantage of migrants, â€he said. “On the other hand, there’s a feeling of ‘OK, we can do this. We’ve been dealing with tough situations over the past four years and we can handle that. There is apprehension and, also, resilience.
Noorani says the Biden administration needs to fine-tune its immigration strategy to get more Americans behind it. “There must be a plan in place and that plan must be communicated to migrants, organizations on both sides of the border, and the American public. If they feel that there is no plan or that it is not communicated, the public will be made to think that things are not under control, â€he said.
The immigration expert said Biden is also not effectively communicating what he is doing to improve border security.
“They’re securing the border, so they should talk about it. The fact that they are not leaves them exposed to attacks from the opposition, â€Noorani said.
This opposition, which includes many Republicans, is also expected to come to the negotiating table to craft a long-term solution for a better U.S. immigration system and better border security through more modern technology, he said. added.
“If Republicans are serious about solutions, they would join (American senses) John Cornyn and Kyrsten Sinema on the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act. It’s very moderate, very thoughtful, it doesn’t cross the red lines like building walls or changing asylum laws, â€he said. “Yes, there will be a base of Republicans who just want the app, but there is a large suburban GOP base who sees this as a complicated problem that requires complicated solutions.”
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