The Biden administration has officially announced the reported plan that would allow some Venezuelan asylum-seekers to seek safety in the U.S. Various outlets had reported a Uniting for Ukraine-like program where Venezuelan migrants could be sponsored by U.S. applicants (like a relative), and arrive to the U.S. by air after applying abroad.
The official announcement on Wednesday reveals a humanitarian parole program that The New York Times describes as “far narrower” than the Ukrainian program, capping enrollees at 24,000. The administration had set “no numerical limits on requests for travel authorization or parole under Uniting for Ukraine,” the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website said.
To the dismay of advocates, the Biden administration also confirmed that it will use the debunked Title 42 order to send back to Mexico Venezuelans who arrive via land border and are not enrolled in the new program. Title 42 is the Stephen Miller-era policy that has used the pandemic as an excuse to quickly deport asylum-seekers in violation of their rights.
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"While we welcome the decision to provide humanitarian parole for some Venezuelans with family ties in the United States, we condemn the administration’s plan to expand Title 42, which falsely uses public health pretexts to conduct mass expulsions and undermine asylum protections that are guaranteed under U.S. and international law,” Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA), said in a statement received by Daily Kos.
Previously, Mexico did not accept Venezuelan migrants under the Title 42 order. But under an agreement between the U.S. and Mexico, “[e]ffective immediately, Venezuelans who enter the United States between ports of entry, without authorization, will be returned to Mexico,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Wednesday. In the statement, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that migrants “who attempt to cross the southern border of the United States illegally will be returned to Mexico and will be ineligible for this process in the future.”
“This decision comes after President Biden’s declaration less than a month ago that the pandemic is over, highlighting the hypocrisy behind the continuation of the so-called public health order,” Melaku continued in the NPNA statement. “All people should have the right to seek safety and protection, not just a select few.”
Uniting for Ukraine has welcomed more than 54,000 people since this past spring. Humanitarian parole allows applicants to live and work here for periods of two years or so. A similar process for Venezuelans would allow vulnerable people to avoid having to make risky journeys north, including through a dangerous region of the Colombia–Panama border known as the Darien Gap. But the program would be shut down to others after the initial 24,000 enrollees, and there would be no chance at safety for Venezuelans without a U.S. tie.
“While we welcome the use of parole to bring people to safety while they assert their claims for asylum and other relief, we are concerned at the narrow confines of the new parole program, including the requirement of a U.S.-based sponsor and requirement that applicants arrive by air,” National Immigration Justice Center executive director Mary Meg McCarthy said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “NIJC staff are regularly receiving newcomers arriving to Chicago from the border by bus, and in our experience very few Venezuelans arriving in search of safety have someone who would be available to sponsor them for this program.”
Attorneys for Venezuelan migrants transported under false pretenses from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Republican Ron DeSantis similarly objected to the new policy. Likely most or even all of their clients may have been returned to Mexico if they’d arrived today. “Lawyers for Civil Rights, the organization representing the Martha’s Vineyard migrants, vehemently objects to these changes,” said a statement received by Daily Kos. “They are inhumane, arbitrary, and only serve to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis at the Southern border.”
“Much like the Trump administration’s child separation policy, this program is punitive to the point of cruelty,” Lawyers for Civil Rights continued. “In its haste to appear responsive to political attacks on immigration, the administration is interfering with Venezuelan migrants’ rights to seek immigration protection and relief in this country and creating further chaos and confusion to an already broken immigration system.”
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