WASHINGTON – President Biden declared January as Human Trafficking Prevention Month on Friday – outraging critics who say he is to blame for record-breaking levels of human smuggling along the US-Mexico border, where monthly illegal crossings hit an all-time high this month. .
Biden’s statement ordering the annual recognition was released by the White House press office while he was on vacation in St. Croix and called for “safe, orderly and humane migration” despite the chaotic scenes at the southern border — words that were absent from a similar edict last year.
“It’s disgusting that he wants to declare human trafficking awareness month,” Tom Homan, former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Post.
“If anyone needs to be aware of human trafficking, it’s him. He enriched human traffickers because of the lack of border enforcement,” said Homan. “They made a record amount of money moving a record amount of people for deliberately not securing the border.”
President Biden is vacationing at a donor’s home in St. Croix as illegal crossings along the US-Mexico border set new records. Reuters
Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, said: “President Biden’s open border policy has undeniably fueled a continuing tidal wave of illegal immigration crossing our borders, resulting in the United States engaging in the world’s largest human trafficking and smuggling operation. trading operations in modern history.”
The White House issued the declaration amid reports that 276,000 people were detained for illegally crossing the southern border in the first 27 days of December, surpassing September’s record of nearly 270,000 during the same period.
“More than 27 million people around the world endure the abuse of human trafficking and forced labor, including thousands here in the United States,” Biden’s statement said. “It is a threat to global security, public safety, and human dignity.”
Biden has remained out of the public eye since arriving in the US Virgin Islands on Wednesday. REUTERS Illegal border crossings hit new highs in December as critics accused Biden of luring a surge in immigration. Getty Images
“Federal agencies today work closely with governments and organizations around the world to address the root causes of trafficking, bring traffickers to justice, and support survivors as they recover and rebuild their lives.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met Wednesday with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City to discuss border security, but left without announcing a specific agreement.
Homan, a former Border Patrol agent, said the largely cartel-controlled border region sees the trafficking of both migrants who are financially tied to their smugglers after being processed by US authorities as well as the trafficking of so-called “tourists” who evade capture and disappear. to the interior of the US.
Some of the 400,000 unaccompanied children who have crossed the border under Biden are forced to work in meat factories. US Department of Labor migrants have been given foil blankets to keep warm during long waits for processing. AFP via Getty Images
“They come, then they have to pay a fee and a lot of them don’t know what they’re getting into — some women are forced into prostitution, others are forced into work,” Homan said of immigrants awaiting asylum decisions across the US.
“There are over 400,000 [unaccompanied] children who have been smuggled across the border [since 2021] and there have been three or four separate investigations that have found these children working in meat packing factories in the middle of the night and being forced labourers, not going to school,” he added. “That’s the work of smugglers.
“On an average day, 70 to 90% of agents are taken offline to process [migrants],” he continued.
“Actually, this month alone, there have been five different incidents that I’m aware of where in the border sector, there wasn’t a single uniform on patrol because of the sheer volume— they pulled everyone in for processing. That’s when the cartels smuggle women and children. That’s when the cartels mobilize fentanyl, that’s when they mobilize gang members and criminals who don’t want to turn themselves in.”
Former ICE acting director Tom Homan said some immigrants become financially indebted to their traffickers. Reuters
Nearly 2.5 million people were apprehended after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in fiscal 2023, which ended on September 30, the most on record. That figure does not include an estimated 670,000 refugees, but is still up from nearly 2.4 million in fiscal 2022 and 1.7 million in fiscal 2021.
Most asylum seekers are allowed into the US to await a court decision and are entitled to work permits when their claims go through a backlog review system.
More than 1,000 migrants walk toward a US Border Patrol processing center after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico on Dec. 18, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Getty Images
Biden stopped former President Donald Trump’s construction of a US-Mexico border wall on his first day as president, and in June 2021 ended the “Remain in Mexico” policy that required most asylum seekers to wait south of the border while their cases were heard.
The border crisis is a political liability for Biden facing an expected rematch against Trump in next year’s election. A Pew Research poll released this month found that only 32% of Americans believe Biden can make “smart decisions on immigration policy.”
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
