Congresswoman, UN human rights chief denounce US plans to limit migrants from the Caribbean

NEW YORK, CMC – Caribbean American Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Wednesday denounced plans by the Joe Biden administration in the United States to limit migrants from the Caribbean and other places.

Late last week, the Biden administration announced that it was limiting migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti who enter the US under humanitarian parole to 30,000 each month, while expelling those who attempt to cross the south western border.

“As the daughter of immigrants and a woman who has dedicated her life towards securing their fair and equitable access to the American dream, I have long pursued reform in a desperately out-of-date immigration system,” Clarke, whose parents hail from Jamaica, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

“Unfortunately, the recently announced reforms from President Biden and his administration fail to deliver the change migrant communities deserve and have prayed for.”

Moreover, she said, “these insufficient solutions have permitted the cruel and oppressive legacy of the Trump-era Title 42 policy to persist”, referring to the policy which grants the government the ability to take emergency action to stop the “introduction of communicable diseases” and which the Donald Trump administration used to designate hundreds of thousands of migrants for expulsion, arguing that allowing them to enter the US may increase the spread of COVID-19.

“I am far from alone in finding that tragic fact unacceptable,” added the representative for the largely Caribbean 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York.

Clarke, therefore, urged President Biden to re-evaluate his administration's decision on the issue.

At the same time, Türk said the Biden administration's border policy reforms “risk undermining the basic foundations of international human rights and refugee law”.

Taking aim at the expected rise in so-called “expedited removals” from the United States, Türk also criticised the intention to use the COVID-19 pandemic-related Title 42 public health order.

The move will permit the “fast-track expulsion to Mexico” of 30,000 Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans each month.

The High Commissioner welcomed the extension of the US so-called “humanitarian parole” programme to include nationals of Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua – in addition to Venezuelans – but he insisted that the measure should not come at the expense of fundamental human rights, including the right to seek asylum and the right to an individual assessment of protection needs.

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