WASHINGTON – President Biden proclaimed January as Human Trafficking Prevention Month on Friday, outraging critics who say he is to blame for record levels of human trafficking along the U.S. border. Mexico, where monthly illegal crossings hit an all-time high this month.
Biden’s statement declaring the annual recognition was issued by the White House press office while he was vacationing in St. Croix and calls for “safe, orderly and humane migration” despite the chaotic scenes at the southern border, words notably absent in a similar edict last year.
“It’s just disgusting that he wants to declare human trafficking awareness month,” Tom Homan, former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Post.
“If anyone needs to be aware of human trafficking, it’s him. He has enriched human traffickers because of his lack of border enforcement,” Homan said. “They are making record amounts of money moving record numbers of people because of their intention to unprotect the border.”
President Biden is vacationing at a donor’s home on 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: “Without a doubt, President Biden’s open border policies have unleashed a persistent wave of illegal immigration crossing our borders, which has resulted in the United States being complicit in the world’s largest human trafficking and smuggling operation in modern history.”
The White House released the proclamation 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 abhorrent abuse of human trafficking and forced labor, including thousands of people right here in the United States,” Biden’s statement read. “It is a threat to global security, public safety and human dignity.”
Biden has remained out of public view since arriving in the US Virgin Islands on Wednesday. REUTERS Illegal border crossings hit a new high in December as critics accused Biden of bringing in the surge of migrants. fake images
“Today, federal agencies are working 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 with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City on Wednesday to discuss border security, but left without announcing specific agreements .
Homan, a former Border Patrol agent, said the border region, largely controlled by cartels, sees trafficking of both migrants who are financially hired by their smugglers after being processed by U.S. authorities, and of so-called trafficked “escapees” who evade arrest and disappear. into the interior of the United States.
Some of the 400,000 unaccompanied children who crossed the border under the Biden administration are forced to work in meat plants. Immigrants from the U.S. Department of Labor have been given foil blankets to keep warm during long processing waits. AFP via Getty Images
“They come, then they have to pay fees and many of them don’t even know what they’re getting into: some women are forced into prostitution, some are forced to work,” Homan said of migrants awaiting asylum decisions across the United States.
“There are more than 400,000 [unaccompanied] children who have been smuggled across the border [since 2021] and there have already been three or four separate investigations that have found these children working in meatpacking plants at midnight and in forced labor, without going to school,” he added. “That is the job of traffickers.
“On a typical day, 70 to 90 percent of agents come off the line to process [migrants]”he continued.
“In fact, this month alone, I am aware of five different occasions where in sectors of the border there was not a single uniform patrolling due to the overwhelming number: they are detaining everyone for Processing. That’s when the cartels traffic women and children. “That’s when the cartels move the fentanyl, that’s when they move the gang members and criminals who don’t want to turn themselves in.”
Former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan says some immigrants become financially indebted to their smugglers. REUTERS
Nearly 2.5 million people were detained after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30, the most on record. That figure does not include an estimated 670,000 getaways, but is still up from nearly 2.4 million in fiscal 2022 and 1.7 million in fiscal 2021.
A large proportion of asylum seekers are allowed to enter the United States pending court rulings and are entitled to work permits while their applications go through a backlog review system.
More than 1,000 migrants walk toward a U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico on December 18, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. fake images
Biden halted construction of former President Donald Trump’s U.S.-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 his case was heard.
The border crisis is a political risk for Biden ahead of his expected rematch against Trump in next year’s elections. A Pew Research poll released this month found that only 32% of Americans believed Biden could make “sound decisions on immigration policy.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn