Protesters recently gathered at the home of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to protest immigration policies and the border crisis.
A left-wing Jewish political group called Never Again Action hung a 30-foot emergency blanket banner on the front of Mayorkas’ house Monday. The banner read “Biden presidency, Trump policy” and had “#KeepYourPromises” at the bottom.
Alyssa Rubin, the group’s campaigns director, said “The Biden administration promised to end Trump’s cruel immigration policies, and replace them with a ‘fair and humane’ immigration system”. “Instead they’ve doubled down on the worst of Trump’s racist policies”, she added.
Mayorkas said Friday that at least 30,000 migrants had crossed over the border into the U.S. Approximately 2,000 were deported and 17,000 were waiting for a decision on whether they could remain in the country.
The Biden administration was strongly criticized for deporting migrants but Mayorkas noted that under Title 42, migrants must prove “acute vulnerability” or another threat in order to avoid deportation.
He said the policy “is applicable and has been applicable to all irregular migration during this pandemic”. He also added that “It is not specific to Haitian nationals or the current situation”.
Rubin claimed “Secretary Mayorkas, himself a refugee and the child of Holocaust survivors, has now joined the long list of U.S. officials enforcing racist policies that turn away desperate refugees and migrants, sending many of them back to their death”.