Mayorkas defends U.S. border technique as migrant apprehensions attain 21-year excessive

Brownsville, Texas — Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday strongly defended the Biden administration’s technique for coping with migration to the U.S.-Mexico border, the place inderdictions of migrants and asylum-seekers have reached ranges not seen in over twenty years.

Standing in entrance of Border Patrol autos in south Texas, Mayorkas mentioned the administration is increasing enforcement efforts to discourage financial migrants from making an attempt to enter the U.S. with out permission, whereas steadily increasing entry to the U.S. asylum system for these fleeing violence.

“It’s vital that intending migrants perceive clearly that they are going to be turned again in the event that they enter the US illegally and shouldn’t have a foundation for reduction below our legal guidelines,” Mayorkas informed reporters, acknowledging that the “unprecedented quantity” of border crossings poses a “severe problem.” 

U.S. Customs and Border Safety (CBP) carried out 212,000 migrant apprehensions in July, a 21-year excessive, in accordance with knowledge launched Thursday. Greater than 110,000 single grownup migrants have been taken into custody, nearly all of whom have been expelled to Mexico below a public well being authority first invoked below the Trump administration.

Nevertheless, practically 88% of the greater than 83,000 migrant dad and mom and youngsters taken into custody as households in July have been processed below U.S. immigration legislation and allowed to hunt asylum. U.S. border officers additionally encountered an all-time excessive 19,000 unaccompanied kids, whom the Biden administration has categorically shielded from the expulsion coverage, often known as Title 42.

“It’s a huge quantity,” Raul Ortiz, the incoming chief of U.S. Border Patrol, informed CBS Information throughout an interview Tuesday. “I’ve an enormous circulation of migrants coming throughout right here in south Texas. I’ve the identical factor two or 300 miles up the river in Del Rio, Texas. After which I’ve the identical factor occurring in Yuma, Arizona. It actually has pressured us to rethink how we do enterprise.”

Mayorkas attributed the rise in migration to violence, poverty and corruption in Central America, issues that he mentioned the Biden administration is in search of to mitigate by means of overseas assist.

“Younger boys whose lives are threatened if they refuse to hitch a gang,” Mayorkas mentioned, offering examples of would-be migrants. “Younger ladies who’re weak to rape whereas they stroll to highschool.”

However Mayorkas mentioned the spike in border apprehensions was additionally fueled by the resurgent U.S. financial system and the Biden administration’s reversal of a number of Trump-era insurance policies, such because the follow of requiring asylum candidates to attend in Mexico, typically in harmful and squalid circumstances, for his or her U.S. courtroom hearings.

“One more reason is the tip of the merciless insurance policies of the previous administration and the restoration of the rule of legal guidelines of this nation that Congress has handed, together with our asylum legal guidelines that present humanitarian reduction,” Mayorkas mentioned.

In response to the surge in migrant encounters and considerations concerning the unfold of the Delta variant of the coronavirus throughout U.S. communities, the Biden administration has been ramping up deportations and prosecutions of border-crossers, together with households touring with kids.

“Now, in fact, the Delta variant makes the state of affairs tougher. Our capability to check, isolate and quarantine the weak inhabitants — people who make authorized claims for asylum — is stretched,” Mayorkas mentioned, including that DHS is “constructing new capability” to mitigate well being dangers to migrants and neighboring communities alongside the Southwest border. 

The secretary acknowledged an “improve within the positivity price among the many migrant inhabitants” in current weeks, however identified that the positivity price among the many migrant group is the same as or decrease than that of border communities. 

Since final month, some Central American households have been subjected to a fast-track deportation coverage often known as “expedited removing,” which permits U.S. border brokers to repatriate migrants with out permitting them to seem earlier than an immigration decide. 

Final week, U.S. authorities additionally began flying Central American migrants to southern Mexico below the Title 42 public well being edict, which bars them from making use of for asylum. Ortiz mentioned “a whole bunch” of border-crossers have been positioned on these expulsion flights to this point, together with 250 migrants who departed south Texas on Tuesday. 

Mayorkas mentioned the expulsion flights are designed to curb repeat border crossing makes an attempt, which he famous made up 27% of the migrant apprehensions in July.

“[We are] actually taking a chance to leverage Title 42 to fly individuals again into Mexico. We repatriate individuals throughout the port of entry, however actually have a capability to move them even additional south, nearer to their residence nation,” Ortiz mentioned. “I feel it’s a profit for them in addition to a profit for us, as a result of then we do not have the overcrowding that exists at a few of our amenities and [it] allowed us to ease a few of that stress.”

The expulsion flights and the fast-track deportation program for households have alarmed advocates for asylum-seekers, together with the United Nations refugee company, which mentioned the follow of flying Central Individuals to southern Mexico might pressure the “humanitarian response capability” within the area.

“These expulsion flights of non-Mexicans to the deep inside of Mexico represent a troubling new dimension in enforcement of the COVID-related public well being order often known as Title 42,” the refugee company mentioned in a press release Wednesday.

Kennji Kizuka, a researcher at Human Rights First, traveled to the Mexican border cities of Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa this week to interview asylum-seekers affected by U.S. coverage. He mentioned he spoke with migrants from Central America, Cuba, Haiti and different international locations who expressed concern of being victimized in these Mexican cities, that are positioned in a state the U.S. authorities warns Individuals to not go to due to rampant crime, together with kidnappings.

“Individuals are actually confused and nervous that there is not going to be any alternative to request asylum at ports of entry,” Kizuka informed CBS Information. “Individuals are actually scared. They’re scared to even go outdoors and purchase meals at an area grocery store.”

Kizuka’s group has compiled a listing of greater than 3,200 studies of kidnappings, rapes and assaults towards migrants stranded in Mexico because of the Title 42 rule since January. 

Whereas the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) prolonged the Title 42 expulsions indefinitely earlier this month, Biden administration officers have acknowledged that they won’t all the time have that emergency authority at their disposal. 

After holding talks with the Biden administration for six months, the American Civil Liberties Union final week revived its lawsuit towards the Title 42 expulsions. U.S. District Decide Emmet Sullivan, who has beforehand dominated that Title 42 doesn’t authorize expulsions or override U.S. immigration legislation, might challenge a call quickly that might block the expulsions of households with kids. 

“We actually are involved that in some unspecified time in the future Title 42 might not be a chance for us to repatriate migrants again to Mexico or into their residence nation,” Ortiz mentioned. “So we all the time must plan in case of an emergency state of affairs.” 

Mireya Villarreal contributed to this report.