Abortion, weapons, global warming… And now, migration policy? This Tuesday, December 27, the Supreme Court of the United States announced the maintenance of a controversial anti-immigration measure, against the opinion of the White House, marking a little more the American dissensions, around the major contemporary questions. , and the now very conservative role of the institution, which under Donald Trump has made a complete turn to the right.
“Title 42” will therefore remain in effect… until “June, apparently”, confirmed a disappointed Joe Biden, about to leave Washington to go on vacation. This measure, taken in March 2020 during the Covid-19, authorizes the manu militari expulsion of all migrants without residence permits arrested at the borders. Transferred from the territory, without delay, without legal, and without necessarily that the person benefits from a return to his country of origin. A practice deemed illegal and traumatic by many NGOs, but without which many states fear an eruption of the crisis on the borders with Mexico.
Human rights activists and experts consider it a violation of international law. For them, the current system only encourages migrants to cross the border clandestinely and to take ever-increasing risks to get there by crossing hostile deserts or rivers conducive to drowning. “We continue to challenge this horrific measure that has caused asylum seekers so much harm,” said attorney Lee Gelernt, who was arguing against the proceedings on behalf of the powerful civil rights group ACLU.
Title 42 has been the subject of several separate court battles. A court of first instance, then another of appeal, had pronounced in favor of its repeal. For Refugees International, “a majority of Supreme Court justices have now effectively approved the continuation of the pushbacks, and will be responsible for what the trial court called ‘irreparable harm’ inflicted to deported asylum seekers.After the passage of this measure, photos of border guards on horseback violently pushing back migrants had struck the American public opinion.
A US border guard tries to stop a migrant near a bridge in Del Rio, on the border with Mexico, September 19, 2021
© / afp.com/PAUL RATJE
In June, the Supreme Court must again rule on this device, by another aspect. “Until that date, we must apply” the measure, “insisted the Democratic president, guaranteeing the institutions. If Joe Biden bends to the very right-wing line of the Supreme Court since the appointment of several of its members by Donald Trump, the Biden administration is no less ulcerated Title 42 should have been withdrawn a long time ago, estimated the American president, before urging, to a “in-depth reform” of the immigration system.
An explosive theme
During his election campaign, Joe Biden had promised an overhaul of the migration policy, but all his bills are bogged down in Congress. His administration is currently struggling to put in place a sustainable strategy to manage arrivals at the 3,000 kilometer long border with Mexico. Clandestine arrivals at the US border with Mexico are currently breaking all-time records, with more than 200,000 arrests in November alone.
19 American states had indicated that they supported this measure, and feared that a lifting would trigger a massive influx of migrants. Several municipalities on the southern border of the United States had begun to install fences and fences. Many migrants have been waiting around the border for the past few weeks, hoping to be able to apply for asylum in the United States. If this delay granted to Title 42 satisfies the border states, the decision of the Supreme Court was also immediately applauded by the Republican camp. “It will prevent people living on the border from sinking into total chaos,” said Texan elected official Tony Gonzales.
Since the start of his term, the Republican opposition has relentlessly attacked Joe Biden, accused of having turned the border into a sieve. The migratory question is the subject of significant instrumentalization. Just before the mid-term elections, the Republican governors of Texas and Florida boasted of having moved around 10,000 foreign people to denounce the migration crisis. Until chartering buses to drop off these people … at the homes of elected Democrats.