Human Rights Stain, Public Health Farce: Title 42 Tied to 13,000 Murders, Rapes, Kidnappings in Mexi
Human Rights Stain, Public Health Farce: Title 42 Tied to 13,000 Murders, Rapes, Kidnappings in Mexico
DECEMBER 21, 2022
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman in New York, with Juan González in Chicago.
We turn now to immigration news. The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to temporarily keep in place Title 42 until after Christmas. The Trump-era pandemic policy has been used to block over 2 million migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. In a filing Tuesday, the Biden administration asked the top court to allow it to end the policy, but not until at least December 27th to give border communities more time to prepare for what’s expected to be an increase in the number of people seeking refuge in the United States. On Monday, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked the Biden administration from ending the Title 42 policy, [siding], at least for the moment, with a group of U.S. states with Republican attorneys general who want to continue to enforce Title 42.
We go now to San Francisco, where we’re joined by Julia Neusner, the research and policy attorney with Human Rights First. She helped write a new report titled “Human Rights Stain, Public Health Farce.” The group has tracked over 13,000 reports of murder, torture, kidnapping, rape and other violent attacks on migrants and asylum seekers blocked in or expelled to Mexico under Title 42 since President Biden took office.
Julia, welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about your findings and the significance of what’s taking place right now at the highest court. What’s going to happen?
JULIA NEUSNER: Good morning, Amy. Thanks so much for having me.
So, we’ve been tracking the Title 42 policy under the Biden administration since its inception. And as you’ve said, we’ve now tracked 13,480 kidnappings and other violent attacks against migrants and asylum seekers stranded in Mexico or expelled under Title 42. And that number is absolutely staggering, and it continues to climb for as long as the policy is in progress. We know that migrants and asylum seekers who are stranded at the border are specifically targeted by organized criminal groups, and even police and state actors, for extortion, kidnappings and other attacks. And this policy has just made it so much worse.
And so, as you explained, the Supreme Court has stayed the termination of the policy, and the U.S. government yesterday submitted its response opposing the stay but requesting additional days to be able to implement — to be able to prepare for the lifting of Title 42. So, we don’t know how the court is going to decide on that, but the government did indicate that it has new policies that it’s planning to implement in preparation.
More:
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/12/21/frustration_among_migrants_at_us_mexico
