The Biden Administration and the Implications for Migration and the Welfare of Migrants in the United States: New Arrivals and Recent Deportations
The Biden administration also allowed nearly 500,000 Venezuelan migrants who are already in the country to seek work permits and protection from deportation. The administration yielded to pressure from leaders in New York, where the recent arrival of more than 100,000 migrants in New York City has overwhelmed shelters and strained resources. The debate about whether the Biden program will encourage more people to migrate was touched off by its not applying to new arrivals.
“The smuggling organizations are spreading misinformation with a global reach that they couldn’t do before,” said John Modlin, the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector chief, who is coordinating the response to border crossings in Arizona and California. “In the past, at best, they could talk to the village they were in, or a small region. Through social media, they can hit people all around the world.”
Migrants like Mr. Soto and his mother are arriving on a tailwind of stories of friends and relatives who reached New York or Chicago months earlier. Many people think false claims on the internet that migrants can stay in the United States if they are able to sneak in.
Thousands of migrants who do cross the border successfully are being deported shortly after they arrive, based on factors that include their home countries, available flights, and the discretion of border officials. Other people who have faced deportation are allowed to remain in the US while they wait for their cases to wind through immigration court, a process that can take years.
Immigration Statistics and Family Separation at the Border: Three U.S. Administrations Keep Them From Coming to America, Not Just Like They Used To
On a recent day hundreds of families passed through a welcome center run by a local nonprofit called Team Brownsville, which allowed them to pick up food and clothing donations while on their way north.
“We are starting again from scratch,” said Francisco Sierra, who fled from Venezuela with his wife and two young sons. We arrived with nothing but our clothes.
The number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border was down for a few months. The numbers are climbing once again, and on course to match the historic highs of last year.
That’s driven in part by a record-breaking influx of migrant families. Immigration authorities arrested more families in August than any other month on record.
The scale might be new, but immigration experts say the underlying issues are not. Three administrations in a row have grappled with how to discourage migrant families from crossing the border illegally — and found that there are no easy solutions.
Theresa Cardinal Brown is a former Homeland Security official and currently works for the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Brown says immigration authorities are limited in how long they can hold migrant children in detention because of a long-standing legal agreement known as the Flores Settlement.
The former President Trump’s administration claimed that the families and passengers were taking advantage of generous U.S. policies. The Trump administration deliberately separated parents from their children at the border.
“It’s very hard to deter somebody who has that level of desperation through harsh penalties,” she said, “especially migrants who believe that if they do not come to America their family will die or their kids will be killed.”
John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, said that deterrence is a big name of the game. The family separation could be a tough deterrent.
Source: Despite efforts of 3 U.S. administrations, migrant families keep crossing the border
Refugees and the Damned Dangerous Darien Gap: The Story of a Venezuelan Professor of Education in the United States
This week, the Biden administration said that it’s expanding the program to speed up immigration proceedings for migrant families. Since the beginning of the program, 1,600 families have been processed.
“It seems like family detention, but painted with a different brush,” said Cindy Woods of Americans for Immigrant Justice. “It’s another attempt to deter more families from coming to the United States.”
Francisco Sierra used to be a professor of education in Venezuela. His wife worked in the chemical plant. Still, Sierra says they were barely getting by due to Venezuela’s crumbling economy, and saw little hope for their two boys, ages 4 and 5.
Sierra said in Spanish that the effort is no longer worth it. “My career was practically six wasted years studying at a university. … It was important for us to have a better future for our family.
Even Homeland Security officials can seem a bit shocked by the desperation of migrants who are willing to cross the dangerous Darién Gap, a remote border crossing through the jungle in Panama.
The immigration official from the Department of Homeland Security said at a conference in Washington that it was heartbreaking. Tens of thousands of people a month travel to the Darién Gap to get to the U.S.
Families with small children, babies, and kids in diapers are what you see. After walking for a couple of days without food or water, I came out of that jungle. He said it was just in really dire conditions.