The United Nations is taking aim at President Biden’s new border security announcements, accusing the administration of undermining human rights with its efforts to limit the ability of illegal immigrants to claim asylum in the United States.
“The right to seek asylum is a human right, no matter a person’s origin, immigration status, nor how they arrived at an international border,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.
Turk was reacting to announcements by the administration last week of measures designed to stem the overwhelming migrant crisis at the southern border which has seen hundreds of thousands of migrants hitting the border each month.
President Biden announced an expansion of a humanitarian parole program for Venezuelans to include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans. The program will allow 30,000 of those nationalities to enter the U.S. each month if they have not crossed illegally and if they have a sponsor in the country already.
MEXICAN PRESIDENT THANKS BIDEN FOR NOT BUILDING ANY MORE BORDER WALL, PUSHES FOR AMNESTY
President Joe Biden walks with U.S. Border Patrol agents along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
However, that expansion comes hand-in-hand with an expansion of Title 42 expulsions to include 30,000 illegal immigrants each month of those nationalities. Mexico had previously not been receiving Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans under the Trump-era public health order. Additionally, the administration announced an increased use of an alternative removal authority — expedited removal — to remove those who do not claim asylum and who cannot be expelled under Title 42.
Separately, the Department of Homeland Security announced a rule that would make illegal immigrants ineligible for asylum if they “circumvent available, established pathways to lawful migration” and do not claim asylum in a country through which they traveled to get to the U.S.
