The United States is preparing for the end of Title 42, a health rule established by former President Donald Trump and maintained by the current government, which until now allowed the expulsion of most of the people who cross the southern border. The Joe Biden government must abide by an order from a federal judge in Washington DC, who ordered the lifting of the regulations in mid-November, which he described as “arbitrary and capricious.”
The end of this rule, which has barred most asylum claims at the border, is expected to lead to an increase in the number of people arriving in the southern United States hoping to seek refuge in the country. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has already outlined the strategy it will follow to deal with a greater arrival of migrants, but assured that the US system “is not designed” to deal with the current migratory flow.
The Mayor of New York, Eric Adamsasked this Sunday for help from the federal authorities in view of what he expects, will be a massive arrival of asylum seekers to the city as a consequence of the end of that anti-immigration policy. According to Adams, the Big Apple is preparing to receive “from today” a high number of buses coming from the border, and so that every week more than a thousand asylum seekers arrive in the city than normal.
This year tens of thousands of people ended up in this situation in New York, mostly Venezuelans, many of them sent in buses chartered from Texas by the government of Republican Greg Abbott, who opted for this measure to distribute the burden and criticize the policies immigration laws of the Joe Biden administration.
“We have already received more than 31,000 asylum seekers in our city and we currently have 60 emergency shelters open., four humanitarian support centers and two welcome centers. We have put thousands of children in schools and spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to clothe, feed, house and support this population in great need,” Adams said in a statement.
According to the mayor, now New York needs “urgent help” from state and federal authoritieswhich he accused of having “largely ignored” the requests for support made so far. “Our foster system is full and we are almost out of money, staff and space”insisted the Democratic politician, who asked Washington for possible plans to transfer asylum seekers to other cities, allow them to work and “send aid to the cities that have borne the brunt of this crisis.”
State of emergency in Denver
The New York mayor is not the only one concerned about the massive arrival of migrants, since his peer in Denver joined in the last few hours, Michael Hancockby declaring the state of emergency in the capital of the state of Colorado. “Cities across the country are being forced to deal with something we’re not equipped to handle,” Hancock complained.
The Democrat said that he anticipated the measure on Thursday, before it became a new humanitarian crisis in a few days that is beginning to be felt on the United States border with Mexico, where the arrival of migrants is increasing uncontrollably. families, many of them from Venezuela and Nicaragua. “It’s at a crisis point right now,” stressed Hancock, who said the city has not collapsed thanks to the help of churches and humanitarian organizations.
Denver’s mayor stressed that 40 to 170 people will hit Denver each night in an avalanche that he said he doesn’t know when it will stop. Many of them arrived in the city on their own or with the help of organizations, and do not know what they are going to do or where to go. They are part of the mass migration that is taking place in El Paso -Texas- to where some 1,500 migrants from a caravan arrived in a single night, last Sunday.
Mario D’Agostino, deputy municipal manager of El Paso, indicated that that city could see up to 5,000 immigration detentions daily. when the order of a judge that, since 2020, immediately expels migrants at the border, is lifted next Wednesday. These families, who have had to sleep on the streets or in El Paso bus and air terminals, are beginning to move to other cities such as Denver and Dallas, and further afield, including Chicago and New York.
without even a shower
Hundreds of these migrants who arrived in Denver on Friday requested help from local authorities and the community on their social networks and in the media to find accommodation and work in this city, after the initial help they had received had run out. Despite the fact that the municipality opened two temporary shelters, and the collaboration of several religious or non-profit organizations, many of the newly arrived families lack basic necessities such as winter clothing or a proper place to wash.
“Additional capacity is needed to ensure basic needs are met and the city does not experience a humanitarian crisis for keeping hundreds of displaced homeless migrants in our city,” the Denver mayor emphasized. They specifically asked residents to donate new underwear, long-sleeved shirts, pants, socks, sweatshirts, closed-toe sneakers and, above all, coats of winter.
The urgency to get winter gear comes as a cold front is expected to hit Colorado within a week, unleashing the first severe snowstorm of the season and causing temperatures to dip below freezing. The local mayor’s office estimates that so far it has allocated some 800,000 dollars in emergency funds to help some 900 immigrants, most of them from Venezuela. Hancock also asked for help from the federal government to continue assisting them.
White House calls on Congress to act
The White House demands the United States Congress to “act” and approve the reform proposed by President Biden to “modernize the immigration system” that he considers “dismantled” by his predecessor Trump. This was expressed in a press conference by the spokeswoman for the White House, Karine Jean-Pierreas the government prepares to lift Title 42.
“We need Congress to act. It is important that they give us the resources that we have requested for security and border management”said Jean-Pierre. The Press Secretary recalled that from “day one” Biden sent Congress an immigration reform proposal to “protect” the so-called “dreamers”, undocumented migrants who came to the United States as children, and to “modernize the system” of asylum that was “dismantled” by the previous administration.
Despite the fact that this reform was not approved, Jean-Pierre vindicated the government’s efforts to deal with the migration crisis and recalled that the country has the highest number of security agents on the border, some 23,000. A federal judge ordered Title 42 to be lifted by December 21established in 2020 to expressly expel migrants under the pretext of the pandemic.
The Biden administration has warned migrants not to try to cross the border into Mexico irregularly because they will be expelled anyway despite the lifting of Title 42. Jean-Pierre said the White House will share more details this week about what it will look like. the policy of the federal government after this uprising.