the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Dec 6, 2021
The Biden administration announced December 2nd that it is reinstating Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program, where asylum seekers at the U.S. Southern border are forced to stay on the Mexican side of the border.
Biden’s campaign promise was to end the program—which he did, once elected. But then the courts sided with some Republicans who sued to maintain the policy. Now, all of a sudden, the president’s hands are tied—nothing he can do about it, he says!
The policy’s formal name is “Migrant Protection Protocols.” It sounds like a sick joke, because in reality, migrants on the Mexican side of the border must run a gauntlet of predatory violence and terrible conditions. Migrants crowd into tent encampments in cold weather. There were at least 1,544 publicly documented cases of rape, kidnapping, assault, and other crimes committed against individuals sent back through February 2021, according to the organization Human Rights First. Many more go uncounted.
25,000 men, women and children languish in legal limbo under the system. Some wait for years. And only 1.6% of the migrants processed were granted asylum—that is about 500 out of 40,000.
And of course, thousands more migrants are expelled under a “public health” rule put in place by the Trump administration and continued by the Biden administration. They don’t even get the chance to huddle before the country’s doorstep.
Migrants are fleeing the devastation wrought by U.S. imperialism—poverty and extreme violence. They leave one dire situation only to confront another. If some hoped Biden would solve it, well, we can now see clearly where he stands.