The United States also announced a narrow humanitarian parole program that would allow some Venezuelans a legal path into the country.
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Migrants waiting to be transported to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will expand its use of a public health rule to start expelling to Mexico thousands of Venezuelans who illegally cross the U.S. border and announced a new humanitarian parole program to provide a narrow legal pathway to the United States for up to 24,000 Venezuelans.
The administration hopes that Venezuelans will apply for the parole plan remotely and fly to the United States rather than making the dangerous trek to the southwest border.
But the reliance on a Trump-era pandemic rule to deny entry to many others crystallized the Biden administration’s balancing act in both helping refugees and tightening border restrictions in the face of Republican attacks on President Biden’s immigration policy and record numbers of illegal border crossings. And there is no guarantee that just 27 days before the midterm elections, it will have the desired effect.
Until now, the majority of Venezuelans who crossed into the United States have not been expelled under the public health authority, known as Title 42. Instead, they were screened and released into the country temporarily to face removal proceedings in immigration court, where they have the option to apply for asylum.
Under the new plan released by the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, Venezuelans who enter the United States illegally — as tens of thousands have been doing for months — will be expelled to Mexico.
Venezuelans who apply for the humanitarian parole program must have someone in the United States who can show that they are able to financially support the migrant for up to two years. During the application process, the government will assess the sponsor’s finances and vet the applicants, who will also have to have certain vaccinations and comply with other public health requirements.
ImageMigrants from Venezuela wait to be apprehended by Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande into Texas. Venezuelans make up only a fraction of the migrants illegally entering the United States.Credit…Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
In addition, any Venezuelan who enters Mexico or Panama illegally or has permanent resident status, dual nationality or refugee status with another country is ineligible for the parole program. Venezuelans who have already been released in the United States to face removal proceedings and apply for asylum are not eligible to apply for the program either.
Venezuelans who are granted the humanitarian parole will be allowed to work legally in the United States and have more stability than those who face removal proceedings.
“These actions make clear that there is a lawful and orderly way for Venezuelans to enter the United States, and lawful entry is the only way,” Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement on Wednesday.
More on U.S. Immigration
- A New Plan: The Biden administration is considering a humanitarian parole program for some Venezuelans, which officials hope will discourage Venezuelans from making the dangerous trek to the United States to cross the border illegally.
- Migrant Drop-Offs: The idea of sending migrants to Democratic-leaning areas circulated in conservative circles for years, gaining traction under President Donald J. Trump. Now some Republican governors have put it into practice.
- Two Million Arrests: For the first time, the number of arrests of undocumented immigrants along the southwestern border exceeded two million in one year, continuing a historic pace of undocumented immigrants coming to the country.
- Fixing ‘a Very Broken System’: By making a few changes to the asylum process in the United States, the Biden administration hopes to chip away at a massive backlog of immigration cases.
Announcing a new policy less than a month before the midterm elections is a calculated and political decision by the White House, John Thomas, a Republican strategist, said.
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“This is more of an effort to soften people’s anger on what’s happening on the southern border,” Mr. Thomas said. “It also gives the administration a talking point that they are ‘doing something.’”
But it is not clear that the humanitarian parole and expansion of Title 42 will significantly stem the number of border crossings, as Venezuelans make up only a fraction of the migrants crossing illegally.
Advocates for immigrant rights have been urging the White House to create a humanitarian parole program for migrants from particularly unstable countries, including Venezuela.
But they are not supportive of a plan that ties humanitarian parole to expelling thousands of other Venezuelan migrants to the dangerous northern border region of Mexico.
“It’s great to be expanding access to humanitarian parole, but it can’t come at the cost of additional harm to asylum seekers,” said Raha Wala, the deputy director for legislative advocacy for the National Immigration Law Center. “Title 42 is a cruel, Trump-era, anti-immigrant policy that deserves to be relegated to the dustbin of history, not expanded.”
ImageThe governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, bused Venezuelan migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence in Washington in September to protest the Biden administration’s immigration policy.Credit…Oliver Contreras for The New York Times
Escaping poverty and political instability, more than 6.8 million Venezuelans have fled their country since 2015, according to the United Nations. Most went to other South American countries.
But in the past year, more and more have been making their way to the United States. In August, Venezuelans made up about 12 percent of those who crossed the southwestern border illegally. While a majority of migrants who do so are expelled back to their country or to Mexico under the public health order, the U.S. government has not been able to repatriate Venezuelans because of minimal diplomatic relations between Washington and Caracas. And — until now — Mexico has not been willing to take in Venezuelans from the United States.
The humanitarian parole program announced on Wednesday appears to be a much more limited version of earlier proposals. One under consideration as recently as last week included Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans, according to officials briefed on the discussions. It was not immediately clear why these nationalities were ultimately left out.
Mr. Biden has overseen a record number of border crossings that is part of a global movement with more displaced people than ever before. Since he has been in office, the government has screened and released more than 1 million migrants who crossed the border illegally, giving them temporary permission to stay in the country until they face deportation proceedings in immigration court. The Biden administration has also expelled migrants more than 2 million times under the authority of the public health rule.
The Biden administration tried to stop using the public health authority earlier this year, but a federal court stopped it from doing so. Now the administration has expanded the authority instead.
But for vulnerable Democrats in border states, like Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, the ability to campaign on a recent expansion to Title 42 could prove helpful in a tight race, said Carl Fogliani, a Republican political strategist.
“They would want them to be out there saying how wonderful a development this is,” Mr. Fogliani said of the White House and Democrats dealing with border issues.
Source: nytimes.com
