Migrant caravan demands Biden administration 'honors its commitments'
Category: News & Politics
Via: suz • 3 years ago • 107 commentsBy: by Adam Shaw, Griff Jenkins
These people are in for a rude awakening if they think Biden is going to allow them to walk right in.
A migrant caravan moving from Honduras toward the U.S. border is calling on the incoming Biden administration to honor what it says are "commitments" to the migrants moving north, amid fears of a surge at the border when President-elect Joe Biden enters office.
More than 1,000 Honduran migrants moved into Guatemala on Friday without registering, The Associated Press reported. That is part of a larger caravan that left a Honduran city earlier in the day.
The outlet reported that they are hoping for a warmer reception when they reach the U.S. border, and a statement issued by migrant rights group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, on behalf of the caravan, said it expects the Biden administration to take action.
"We recognize the importance of the incoming Government of the United States having shown a strong commitment to migrants and asylum seekers, which presents an opportunity for the governments of Mexico and Central America to develop policies and a migration management that respect and promote the human rights of the population in mobility," the statement said. " We will advocate that the Biden government honors its commitments."
Biden has promised to reverse many of Trump’s policies on border security and immigration. He has promised to end the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which keeps migrants in Mexico as they await their hearings. The Trump administration has said the program has helped end the pull factors that bring migrants north, but critics say it is cruel and puts migrants at risk.
Biden has also promised a pathway to citizenship for those in the country illegally and a moratorium on deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The migrants’ group also pointed to promises to end the asylum cooperative agreements the administration made with Northern Triangle countries.
"A new United States Government is an opportunity to work with the Mexican Government to develop a cooperation plan with Central America to address the causes of migration, together with civil society organizations, as well as an opportunity to increase regional cooperation regarding the persons in need of protection, and to dismantle illegal and inhuman programs such as Remain in Mexico, the United States’ Asylum Cooperation Agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as the Title 42 expulsions by the United States authorities," it said, referring to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) order that allows the U.S. to quickly remove migrants on public health grounds.
Biden officials, however, have been keen to send the message to migrants that it will not mean open borders overnight.
"Processing capacity at the border is not like a light that you can just switch on and off," incoming Biden domestic policy adviser Susan Rice told Spanish wire service EFE. "Migrants and asylum seekers absolutely should not believe those in the region peddling the idea that the border will suddenly be fully open to process everyone on Day 1. It will not."
"Our priority is to reopen asylum processing at the border consistent with the capacity to do so safely and to protect public health, especially in the context of COVID-19," she said. "This effort will begin immediately but it will take months to develop the capacity that we will need to reopen fully."
It is unclear how far the migrants will get, and Guatemalan and Mexican governments have indicated they intend to turn them back. But the caravan comes amid fears that the new outlook on immigration and asylum from the Biden administration will fuel a surge at the border.
Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan said on " Fox & Friends " on Saturday that the caravan could include more than 5,000 migrants and blamed the tone from the incoming administration.
"We're looking at two groups that are well over five thousand. And one of those groups have already gotten through the Guatemala border. And they're on their way to El Rancho, which is about the located centrally in Guatemala," he said. "It's coming. It's already started, just as we promised and anticipated it would with this rhetoric from the new administration on the border."
President Trump warned this week that ending his policies and increasing incentives would lead to "a tidal wave of illegal immigration, a wave like you’ve never seen before" and that there were already signs of increased flows.
"They’re coming because they think that it’s a gravy train at the end," he said. "It’s going to be a gravy train. Change the name from the caravans, which I think we came up with, to the gravy train because that’s what they’re looking for -- looking for the gravy."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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"incoming Government of the United States having shown a strong commitment to migrants and asylum seekers,"
why should the incoming government have a strong commitment to foreigners? Seems the Citizens have enough problems and needs
Dumbasses, there is no "Biden administration" yet. And even when it is a reality in 3 days that doesn't mean anyone and everyone is welcome and we don't owe you anything. Sure quotas will be expanded, and refugee status will be expanded, but it won't be immediate so shut the fuck up. Things take time and we have a lot of shit we need to deal with here right off the bat, we will get to you, but until then sit tight.
The United States government doesn't owe these people shit.
I googled for more info on what Biden had promised to migrants. I don't know if the website I'm citing is politically biased, (I suspect it is conservative) but I seem to recall reading pretty much the same info on MSN while Biden was campaigning. If it is wrong, please let me know.
So Biden did make "commitments" to migrants while campaigning despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of US citizens are dying from a very communicable virus and millions of US citizens are unemployed and may remain that way for the majority of 2021 at the very least.
I guess it is very easy for legislators in their 70s to borrow (or print) endless amounts of money to support millions of more migrants during a pandemic without worrying about putting the needs of US citizens first and foremost.
Note: I don't know if I formatted the following citation properly. I did as I always did with using insert link.
Biden plans early legislation to offer legal status to 11 million immigrants without it
Thousands of migrants desiring to make climate change worse. These migrants aren't coming to the United States to make their carbon footprint smaller.
We can't have our cake and eat it, too.