Decades of military intervention in Central America have contributed to the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the border.
Immigration
Still, advocates say Biden must fundamentally change how agencies process unaccompanied kids on the border.
“What is happening at the southern border is shameful,” says Luz Lopez, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Nothing currently ensures that an immigrant newly granted temporary protected status will have a path to citizenship.
Similar claims, also lacking evidence of any kind, were made by former President Donald Trump in 2018.
News reports show more than 3,500 children were detained at the border in just the first nine days of March.
The rule has been criticized in the past for inviting “arbitrary, biased decision making” in the immigration process.
Raising the numbers is the first step in undoing the damage done to the refugee program under Trump, say advocates.
A humane immigration policy is not possible under these hyper-militarized agencies that came out of the “war on terror.”
Migrant justice advocates are urging Biden to permanently halt the long-term incarceration of migrant families.