The Biden administration is considering resetting the obligation to detain for families who illegally cross the border with the Mexico. There is no confirmation in this regard – “I’m not telling you either yes or no,” the White House spokeswoman told reporters, Karine Jean-Pierre – but the news was leaked to the American media by sources of the Homeland Security who are working on the plan. It would be a resounding turnaround from Joe Bidenwho during his election campaign in 2020 said that “children must be immediately released from detention facilities along with their families.” Faced with the considerable increase of you arrive at the border and on the expiry, next May 11, of one anti-immigration measure, the US administration is therefore thinking of new restrictive measures. The criticisms rights groups have already arrived. “We implore the administration to reject this shameful and retrograde practice“, commented Sergio Gonzales Of Immigration Hub.
The practice of detention for families – so adults with minors – seeking to enter the United States illegally from Mexico is not new. The administrations of had made extensive use of it, amidst a thousand controversies George W. Bush e Barack Obama. A detention facility had been locked in New Mexico in 2014 for the inhuman conditions of prisoners (women and children lived in caravans surrounded by Barbed wire). As part of a strategy aimed at blocking arrivals from the South, Donald Trump had relaunched detention for families with minors, extending the time indefinitely. In other words, migrants could be detained indefinitely before being expelled without their case being considered by a court. To this, the Trump administration had added a particularly brutal practice: separate children from families (approximately 5,500 children and adolescents had been separated from adults). Joe Biden had repeatedly criticized the policy, defining it “inhuman”. In the event of a presidential victory, he said, detention for families and separation of minors would be abolished. Which Biden, once in the White House, did. Families who entered illegally have so far been allowed to move freely on US soil. With some obligations: among these, that of showing up regularly at an immigration office or wearing bracelets to identify the location.
Apparently, the US authorities are now thinking of going back to the past. The choice has above all a reason. May 11th expires Title 42the measure approved in 1944 which allows the expulsions in presence of a health emergency. Donald Trump used the rule to send illegals home during the pandemic, without precisely the judicial verification of their right to remain on American soil. Biden confirmed the rule which, however, expires on May 11. At that point, the administration fears, thousands of people could mass at the southern border, causing new problems for an already struggling reception system. The detention facilities at the southern border are overflowing. The living conditions of migrants are very bad. The courts cannot keep up with the arrivals. Many illegal immigrants are released and go untraceable. A significant increase in arrivals would be a further step towards collapse.
Hence the decision to return to detain the families. Indeed, at Homeland Security they think that the threat of detention will make many desist from leaving. Unlike the Trump years, current national security officials think of a time limit. Families will no longer be able to be detained indefinitely, but there will be a 20 day limit within which a court will have to consider their position. TO Washington they are also keen to distinguish themselves from the policies of the previous administration. “We continue to prioritize human procedures for migrants,” he said louis miranda, spokesman for Homeland Security. Outside of the official statements, however, it is clear that, after criticizing them, Biden is returning to many of the policies of his predecessor. This infuriates rights groups who accuse the president of hypocrisy and to have betrayed promises. “Erasing the inhumane practice of detention for families has been one of the few positive things Biden has done on immigration,” he said. Leecia Welcha lawyer – It is disheartening that we are now returning to this Trump-era practice”.
After all, it is not only the issue of families that worries activists and rights groups. Most of the promises made by Biden in the electoral campaign – one could perhaps say all of them – have been disregarded. In recent months, the administration has announced a series of measures intended to severely limit migratory flows. Among these, there is for example the decision to do not grant asylum to those migrants who have not previously requested it in one of the countries of passage to the United States. Last January 5, the administration also announced that the citizens of Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti e Venezuela (Countries with which there is no bilateral immigration agreement) will be immediately returned to Mexico in case they try to cross the border illegally. At the same time, the US government announced that up to 30 thousand citizens of these four countries will be able to apply for asylum, provided that the request is made onlinethat applicants enter the country by air and have one in the United States financial sponsor. Conditions that immediately appeared as a way to block, not facilitate, arrivals. In fact, few migrants are able to fulfill requests of this type.
However, the squeeze had its first effects. The agents of the Border Patrol they carried out 128,410 detentions of migrants at the border with Mexico in the month of January. The stops had been 42% more in December: a sign that, precisely, the flows are starting to become less important. A more restrictive migration policy is moreover in line with more recent guidelines of thepublic opinion American. A survey Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that four out of ten Americans believe the United States should accept fewer migrants. Two out of ten Americans would instead like more acceptance. About a third of respondents believe the current numbers are acceptable. Biden and the Democrats, with the new strategy, therefore risk losing the support of part of the Hispanic world and more sectors progressives. At the same time, this policy meets a widespread sensitivity in America today and can help debunk the attacks of Republicans who accuse Biden of having “opened the border” to criminals e drug traffickers.
That said, announcing the new policy will be easy. It will be much more difficult to implement. As mentioned, the structures of theImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the border are already overflowing with migrants living in very bad conditions. Adding households to the current inmates will also be a problem. Also because there is a 1997 law, the “Flores Settlement”, which imposes certain standard to house minors in detention facilities. Are needed places of play and recreation, health care, spaces that can bring together the little ones with their parents. To bring the structures into compliance with the law, investments are needed that ICE does not have, without counting the additional costs for maintaining the families and for their probable return to Mexico or other countries of origin. From now on, therefore, threatening clouds are gathering over the possible choice of the Biden administration. The new policy has a cost which is financial but, of course, also political. It won’t be easy for Biden, once a supporter of a “more human politics” than that of Trump, justify any images of children locked up in detention centres.