WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- According to data released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, U.S. law enforcement arrested about 1.7 million immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal 2021, the highest value ever recorded in 1960. At the same time, there are constantly US media reports on the separation of immigrant families at the border, or incidents of extortion and beatings, which has aroused widespread criticism of the US government's immigration policy. At a CNN voter dialogue event, U.S. President Joe Biden said: "I think I should go to the border to have a look, but the problem is, I don't have time." ”
On the one hand, the embarrassing fact of catching records and the tragic situation of immigrants, on the other hand, the "no time" that the White House has lightly downplayed, the strong contrast not only reflects the US government's disregard for the border migration crisis, but also reflects the consistent attitude of the United States in ignoring the human rights of immigrants.
This is a March 30 photograph of Haitian migrants crossing the Bravo River from Mexico to try to enter the United States on the side of the Mexican border city of Juarez. (Xinhua News Agency, photo by Penado)
Record
According to the CBS website, about 61% of immigrants to the United States in the past 12 months have been repatriated or deported to Mexico, and U.S. border officials have carried out more than 1 million deportations on the grounds of public health emergency policies.
The number of children in transit has also increased dramatically. The New York Times recently reported that in the past 12 months, nearly 147,000 unaccompanied children have been detained while trying to enter the United States, the highest record since 2008.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the U.S. government has invoked Title 42 of the United States Code on public health, social welfare, and civil rights to collectively deport all immigrants and refugees who attempt to cross the U.S. land border without having to assess the specific circumstances and protection needs of those immigrants and refugees separately. This policy has led to a significant increase in the number of migrants who have been deported and arrested.
Biden promised an "orderly" and "humane" border immigration policy during the campaign and planned to end the immigration order by the end of July after taking office. However, the Biden administration decided in August to abandon plans to terminate the immigration deportation order, saying the cancellation would "exacerbate overcrowding at DHS facilities and pose a significant public health risk." This decision violates previous commitments and has been criticized by public opinion in the United States. Today, record arrests present the Biden administration with serious humanitarian and political challenges.
The photo taken on March 27 in Juárez, Mexico, shows two migrant children from Guatemala waiting to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol personnel after crossing the Rio Grande River on the U.S.-Mexico border. (Xinhua News Agency, photo by David Penado)
Brewing crisis
The issue of border migration has been a long-standing focus in the United States, and humanitarian crises have been staged repeatedly.
Immigrants or refugees who cross the border into the United States will not only face poor accommodation conditions, but may also encounter violence by the United States police. Recently, a photograph of U.S. law enforcement officers riding horses to deport running Haitian migrants exploded on the Internet. Critics argue that the atrocity is the same as the scene hundreds of years ago when American slave owners drove out black slaves. U.S. Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters noted in an interview with the media that this is "worse than the era of slavery."
The united States Government's brutal treatment of Haitian immigrants led to the resignation of daniel Futs, the United States Special Envoy for Haiti, after only two months in office. In his Resignation Letter to U.S. Secretary of State Blinken on Sept. 22, Foote said his reluctance was tied to a "inhumane and counterproductive decision" by the United States to brutally repatriate thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants.
Several UN human rights experts recently sent letters to the U.S. government condemning its continued systematic and large-scale repatriation of Haitian migrants and refugees without any assessment, and expressing concern that the U.S. government may violate international refugee law and international human rights law.
The surge in the number of migrant children at the border has further raised fears of a more serious humanitarian catastrophe. U.S. media previously reported that many illegal immigrant children without parental company would be sent to federal shelters, where they were overcrowded and in poor conditions. According to US media statistics, of the 266,000 illegal immigrant children detained by the US government in recent years, more than 25,000 have been detained for more than 100 days, and nearly 1,000 have spent more than a year in shelters, and some have even been detained for more than 5 years.
This is the Capitol building photographed through a fence in Washington, D.C., on September 17. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Liu Jie)
omission
The United States, which prides itself on being a "beacon of human rights," has repeatedly staged humanitarian crises of border migration, exposing the hypocrisy of "American-style human rights." Analysts point out that the tide of immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border is increasingly surging, but the U.S. government is not serious about solving the problem.
Biden in March authorized Vice President Harris to lead the charge on illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border. In June, Harris issued three "don't come" warnings to Guatemalan immigrants on his first foreign trip, sparking widespread controversy. Will Grant, a BBC correspondent for Mexico and Central America, said Harris's statement contradicted her condemnation of the Trump administration's denial of asylum to immigrants during her campaign for vice president. Grant said that as the daughter of immigrants of Indian and Jamaican descent, Harris's rhetoric to dissuade immigrants sounded "particularly harsh."
The Capitol Hill website article said biden had not visited the border for more than 10 years and was now unwilling to face the reality that the crisis had occurred. The article also said that "Biden suffered a border crisis that he refused to resolve personally, even if it had become a national disaster", and that "the administration has repeatedly tried to downplay the severity of the crisis".
Polls conducted by the Associated Press at the end of September showed that only 35 percent of Americans approve of the Biden administration's approach to immigration, down from 43 percent in April. At the same time, the Biden administration's handling of immigration has not won high support from the party. The data shows that only 60 percent of Democrats support the Biden administration's approach, while Republicans support only 6 percent.