In response to continued violence in Ukraine the White House announced that the United States is prepared to welcome 100,000 refugees from Ukraine on Thursday March 24. Since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, approximately 10 million people have been displaced in Ukraine making up about a quarter of its population. Roughly 3.6 million of those displaced have fled into neighboring countries according to the United Nation’s most recent data, while 6.5 million have been displaced internally. The US response comes with a promise of $1 billion for humanitarian funding and reconstruction and another $320 million in human rights and democracy funding for Ukraine and its neighbors.
Of the 100,000 refugees Texas, the largest refugee receiving state in the US, is estimated to receive 12,000 of the refugees according to Russell Smith, the CEO of Refugee Services of Texas. Smith informed WFAA, a Dallas news station, that Refugee Services of Texas anticipates helping resettle between 3,000 to 5,000 refugees.
The US decision to welcome Ukrainian refugees is welcome and worthy of praise, however, we once again cannot help but compare the drastic difference in disposition of US policy towards European and Latin American migrants. In the very same month that the Biden Administration decided to provide holistic aid to Ukrainian migrants, the administration also deported a record high number of Colombian migrants in an operation utilizing Title 42. Title 42, a Trump era immigration policy covered in earlier posts, prevents any migrants expelled under it from applying for asylum, a form of refugee status. In March alone the operation has already expelled several hundred migrants back to Colombia via flights, a dramatic increase from the 20 Colombian nationals expelled in February. To date Title 42 has been used to expel 1.7 million migrants.
With such a blatant juxtaposition in US policy, we must look at the issue of migration critically and in its entirety. In this blog post we do not condemn the US decision to welcome Ukrainian refugees, in fact we applaud and welcome it with open arms. At the same time we must be critical of the failure of US policy to provide the same level of support for equally deserving migrants across our southern border. Current US (and Texas) policies do not welcome migrants fleeing from Central America or the Caribbean, on the contrary, current policies punish migrants for attempting to enter the US in the hopes of deterring further migration. Policies like Title 42 and The Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) aka “Remain In Mexico” continue to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis at our southern border. MPP, for instance, forces migrants to remain in dangerous circumstances without aid from either the US or Mexican governments. The policy specifically places migrants, who have been approved for an asylum hearing, to wait in Mexico for their hearings and in many cases without access to sanitation, healthcare or the ability to generate.
Some might argue that Ukrainians have a stronger case for fleeing their country. In order to fully explore this issue let’s take a moment to examine the migrational push factors in just a couple of the countries whose populations attempt to immigrate to the US.
As mentioned earlier, the US just recently expelled a large number of Colombians under Title 42. So, what is the situation that they are fleeing? In January 2021 Care International released its annual report over the top 10 countries with over 1 million people in need of humanitarian aid that have the least amount of global coverage. Colombia was on that list with 5 million people under control of armed groups and 6.7 million people in need of humanitarian aid. Colombia is still dealing with the fallout of a 52 year long civil war with the rebel group FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The civil war killed over 260,000 people and displaced 7 million. Despite the peace deal in 2016 technically ending the conflict, new and existing militant groups now vie for territory in the wake of FARC’s disintegration. These groups continue to specifically target activists in the country, having killed 145 in 2021 and 182 in 2020 making Colombia one of the most dangerous places in the world for activists to live. The country is also experiencing a high level of food insecurity that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Another group of migrants recently expelled under Title 42 were the 12,000 Haitians across the border from Del Rio last September. Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has a long history riddled with political instability and social strife. Not only is the country prone to political hardship, but is also subject to extreme weather. In 2010 the country suffered a magnitude-7.0 earthquake that killed over 200,000 people. Last year in August of 2021 Haiti suffered another earthquake that killed roughly 2,000 people. While not nearly as deadly as 2010, the earthquake came just a month after the president of Haiti was assassinated by a group of mercenaries. If that was not enough, in the midst of attempting to recover from the most recent earthquake the country was then hit by Tropical Storm Grace. In total there was estimated to be about 10,000 injured from the earthquake and storm.
Yet when a group of 12,000 Haitians attempted to flee to the US in order to escape the natural disasters, political instability, extreme poverty and gang violence of their home country they were met by violence at the hands of CBP and were eventually expelled under Title 42.
There were about 25.9 million refugees worldwide as of 2020 before the invasion of Ukraine. The US had resettled 30,000 refugees as of 2019 with only 3% being from Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2020 the US received 11,840 refugees with only 8% being from Latin America and the Caribbean. The UN Refugee Agency states that there are currently over 97,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Mexico and the White House has just stated that we will receive 100,000 refugees from Ukraine.
The US response to the Ukrainian crisis has been admirable and appropriate. Yet in light of its policies towards migrants from countries south of our border we can not help but wonder where in lies the difference between the Ukrainian refugees and the Haitians or Colombians. The US should be a beacon in its care of the world’s most downtrodden and it should be so indiscriminately.