Good:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the Biden administration Tuesday to halt the deportation of Haitian migrants.
In his floor speech, Schumer criticized the administration for sending the migrants seeking asylum at the Texas-Mexico border back to Haiti, saying the decision “defies common sense.”
“I urge President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas to immediately put a stop to these expulsions and to end this Title 42 policy at our southern border,” Schumer said. “We cannot continue these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies that disregard our refugee laws. We must allow asylum seekers to present their claims at our ports of entry and be afforded due process.”
A
federal judge last week ruled against the Biden administration's use of the Trump-era public health order known as Title 42 to expel migrants without the opportunity to seek asylum, an order that's set to go into effect within days.
Here’s a little more info:
Schumer, who represents a state that boasts the largest concentration of Haitian immigrants in the country in New York City, urged Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to reverse the policy.
“We cannot continue these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies that disregard our refugee laws,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. “We must allow asylum-seekers to present their claims at our ports of entry and be afforded due process.”
The wave of Haitian migrants seeking entry to the U.S. grew over the summer after the assassination of the country’s president in July and an earthquake in August that killed more than 2,000 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes. The number of migrants has overwhelmed U.S. immigration officials, which have been forced to deploy hundreds of additional agents to the border city of Del Rio, Texas.
“I can’t imagine what context would make that appropriate, but I don’t have additional details, and certainly I don’t have additional context,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday at a White House press briefing. “I don’t think anyone seeing that footage would think it was acceptable or appropriate.”
I love President Biden and am still a huge supporter but this is unacceptable:
But it sounds like the Department of Homeland Security is looking into this:
Images and video of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback grabbing and chasing down Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have prompted the Department of Homeland Security to launch an investigation into the matter, the agency said on Twitter.
On Monday, D.H.S. said in a tweet that it has reviewed footage emerging from the border and takes the allegations of abuse against migrants “very seriously.”
“The footage is extremely troubling, and the facts learned from the full investigation, which will be conducted swiftly, will define the appropriate disciplinary actions to be taken,” D.H.S. said.
The Office of Professional Responsibility will lead the probe, and it will also deploy personnel to the border, where thousands of Haitians have poured into the town of Del Rio, Texas, in recent days, living in a temporary camp and hoping to seek asylum in the United States.
MoveOn.org has launched a petition calling on members of Congress to speak out against these deportations. You can click here to contact your representative.
While we are on the subject of immigration:
The Senate parliamentarian on Sunday rejected Democrats’ push to include a pathway to legal status in their social spending plan, a blow to the party’s efforts to enact immigration reform.
In the decision, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, the parliamentarian determined that the Democrats’ proposal is “by any standard a broad, new immigration policy” and that the policy change “substantially outweighs the budgetary impact of that change.”
Democrats have vowed to pursue an alternative proposal to allow immigration provisions in their planned multitrillion-dollar party-line social spending bill should they disagree with the ruling from the nonpartisan Senate rules arbiter, and two of them immediately promised to pursue that in a Sunday night statement. But it's unclear how new reasoning for immigration provisions with the same ultimate effect could win over the parliamentarian, meaning that the new ruling likely closes the path forward for providing legal status through Democrats-only legislation this Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday evening that Democrats are "deeply disappointed in the decision" but plan to meet with the Senate parliamentarian in the coming days and pursue other options.
"Our economy depends more than ever on immigrants," Schumer said. "Despite putting their lives on the line during the pandemic and paying their fair share of taxes, they remain locked out of the federal assistance that served as a lifeline for so many families. We will continue fighting to pursue the best path forward to grant them the ability to obtain lawful status.”
Schumer's remarks were echoed by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.). A White House spokesperson reiterated that President Joe Biden "supports efforts by Congress to include a pathway to citizenship in the reconciliation package and is grateful to Congressional leadership for all of the work they are doing to make this a reality. "
Stay tuned.