The article “‘Appalled’: Dozens of Democrats slam Biden’s border policies” was reported by Al Jazeera on 26 January 2023. The article highlights the impact of the expulsion policy on asylum seekers, invoking the title 42 and the action taken by congress members to eliminate this policy. Title 42 was created to address public health and social welfare and grants the government the ability to take emergency action in numerous ways, including to stop the introduction of communicable diseases. The article calls attention to its misuse of this policy over the past months and how it violates both national and international law. The members of Congress sent a letter to Biden, signed by 80 lawmakers, asking for protection of the asylum seekers.
The article is composed by Al Jazeera staff and it depicts that the author(s) is pro migrant and in support of the immigrants’ rights. The author talks about the lawmakers, who sent the letter to Biden, urging him to restore and protect the rights of asylum seekers and ending title 42 in Congress. The letter was sent as a response to his recent announcement stating that each month 30,000 migrants, arriving at the U.S-Mexico border, from Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti would be sent back. According to the US health authorities, the title 42 restriction is no longer needed after analysis of public health. The author points to the alternative offer that reveals that in turn, the US would accept 30,000 people per month from these countries and give them two-year work authorization, provided they have sponsors in the US and pass background checks. This statement has been widely criticized and a lawsuit has been filed by Texas and 19 republican led states but Biden argues that this policy has helped lower the encounter with migrants on the border, from 3367 in December to 115 in January per day.
The article comprises quantitative evidence to support the argument and compares statistics of previous and current migrants at the Texas border. Biden has tried using this as evidence to show that the policy is working but security officials have argued that it has just made people take riskier paths and travel in worse conditions. Since Covid, US officials have recorded that title 42 has been used 2.5 million times more since March 2020. In addition, the article also includes the link to the letter sent to Biden which includes the signatures of all democrats who signed the letter and their current position in Congress, which assists the argument. The quantitative evidence mentioned would’ve been more reliable if the author compared it to the numbers prior Covid along with the resources from where they got the data.
The only qualitative evidence provided in the article includes interviews with asylum seekers and their experience as a result of this policy. It includes them sleeping in the streets of El Paso and suffering in overcrowded shelters. The article also includes an interview with the Attorney , mentioning his point of view on the ‘strategic’ policy and its impact on the migration number. There is also a link to the letter sent to Biden, highlighting concerns of asylum restrictions. All the evidence provided is useful for making a strong argument in the favor of asylum seekers.
This article relates to what we have covered in class so far. It relates to the immigration policies that have changed over time and how they’ve impacted the migration statistics. It has had direct and indirect impact. Direct and indirect impact includes putting the safety of migrants at risk when they resort to unsafe entry methods for entry in the U.S due to such policies.
Sources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/26/appalled-dozens-of-democrats-slam-bidens-border-policies