Biden Administration Mulls Return to Detention of Asylum-Seeking Families
HAVANA TIMES – The Biden administration is considering a plan to start detaining asylum-seeking families who are apprehended in the U.S.-Mexico border — after U.S. officials had largely ended the practice over the past two years. The move comes as the US continues to intensify its crackdown on asylum seekers as it prepares to phase out the contested Trump-era Title 42 pandemic policy in May. The rule has been used to expel over 2 million migrants without due process at the southern border. Silky Shah of the Detention Watch Network said on Twitter, “Biden confirming his Obama 2.0 status with this news. … I really hope it’s a trial balloon that doesn’t go anywhere, but if not they are definitely going to get a fight.”
Last month, the Biden administration proposed another policy that would force tens of thousands of asylum seekers to first seek protection in Mexico or another country they passed through on their trek to the U.S. Harsher immigration policies are forcing asylum seekers to rely on more dangerous methods and routes to reach the United States.
In Mexico, over 340 migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador were found in an abandoned truck in the state of Veracruz on Sunday. More than 100 unaccompanied migrant children were among the group.