By Nelson A. King
The New York Immigration
Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella
policy and advocacy organization
for more than 200
groups in New York State, has
welcomed President Joseph
Biden’s expansion of refugee
admissions, noting that it is “a
first step in undoing Trump’s
legacy.”
“We applaud President Biden
for taking a crucial first step
in reversing his predecessor’s
ugly and counterproductive
gutting of America’s refugee
system,” said Murad Awawdeh
and Rovika Rajkishun, NYIC’s
interim co-executive directors,
on Thursday.
“Across the state and, especially,
in Western, Central New
York, the Capital Region, Hudson
Valley and Long Island, we
have seen refugees inject new
life into cities and counties that
have struggled with an economic
downturn for decades,”
they added.
“But, for four years, Trump’s
single-minded and racist
attacks on immigrants blinded
him to both the social, cultural,
and economic benefits of
refugees and our humanitarian
obligations to those seeking
safety from violence and persecution,”
Caribbean Life, F 18 ebruary 19-25, 2021
Awawdeh continued.
“Today’s announcement
marks the beginning of a long
project to renew America’s
moral standing and its reputation
as a welcoming nation for
all,” they added.
Last Thursday, President
Biden announced that the US
will raise the cap on refugee
admissions to 125,000 in 2021.
The proposal is a stark
departure from Trump’s policies,
which drastically cut
admissions from 110,000 in
2016 to 15,000 in the current
fiscal year.
On Saturday, the State
Department also announced
that it was suspending and initiating
the process to terminate
the Asylum Cooperative Agreements
with the governments
of El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras as “the first concrete
steps on the path to greater
partnership and collaboration
in the region laid out by President
Biden.”
“The termination of these
Agreements is effective after
the notice period stipulated in
each of the Agreements, but
their suspension is immediate,”
said US Secretary of State,
Antony J. Blinken in a statement.
He noted that Biden, in
the Feb. 2 Executive Order
— aimed at creating a comprehensive
regional framework
to address the causes of
migration, manage migration
throughout North and Central
America, and provide safe and
orderly processing of asylum
seekers at the US border – “set
an ambitious course to work
with our partners — governments,
international and nongovernmental
organization
partners, civil society and the
private sector — to build more
resilient societies across the
region.
“In line with the President’s
vision, we have notified the
Governments of El Salvador,
Guatemala and Honduras that
the United States is taking this
action as efforts to establish a
cooperative, mutually respectful
approach to managing
migration across the region
begin,” Blinken added.
Immigration advocate Murad Awawdeh. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri,
fi le
He said transfers under
the US-Guatemala Asylum
Cooperative Agreement had
been paused since mid-March
2020 due to COVID-19, and
the Agreements with El Salvador
and Honduras were never
implemented.
In the meantime, two immigration
advocacy groups in
the United States have called
on Biden to intervene immediately
in stopping what they
described as the mass deportation
of Haitians.
NYIC and the Brooklynbased
Haitian Women for Haitian
Refugees said on Thursday
that, since Feb.1, the US Immigration
and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) agency has deported
roughly 300 Haitians.
The group said “another
shameful 1800 deportations”
are expected in the next two
weeks.
Immigration advocates welcome Biden’s
expansion of refugee admissions
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