by Kaylee Greenlee
More than 3,200 migrants were attacked in Mexico while waiting to enter the U.S. since President Joe Biden took office, an advocacy organization announced Monday.
Around 3,250 asylum-seeking migrants who were either prevented from entering or expelled from the U.S. to Mexico were targets of kidnapping, rape, human trafficking, sexual assault and armed assault from Jan. 20 through June 17, according to advocacy group Human Rights First.
“Violent attacks against asylum seekers and migrants unable to reach safety in the United States due to the failure of the Biden administration to uphold refugee law and restart asylum processing continue to rise,” the organization said in a statement.
#NEW: In our latest report, we've tracked 3,250 attacks against refugees expelled to or blocked at the U.S.-Mexico border since @POTUS took office in January 2021.
That's 📈 from the 492 attacks we'd tracked in April.
More here: https://t.co/zjH0MTy6eX pic.twitter.com/xT41flVaW1
— Human Rights First (@humanrights1st) June 22, 2021
A seven-year-old from Honduras was reportedly expelled with her mother to Nogales, Sonora, and the pair were allegedly kidnapped and tortured for two weeks in June until their family paid a ransom, according to Human Rights First.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi asked the Biden administration to lift Title 42 restrictions in May citing an urgent need to admit asylum-seeking migrants, according to a statement. The policy denied hundreds of thousands of migrants access to asylum and put some of them in danger in northern Mexico, according to the statement.
“A system which allows a small number of asylum seekers to be admitted daily, however, carries with it a number of risks, and is not an adequate response,” Grandi said in a statement. He added U.S. restrictions are likely contributing to an increased number of migrants seeking the services of smugglers.
The Biden administration continues expelling most migrants who arrive at the southern border through a Trump-era public health policy called Title 42, though the administration might end the order at the end of July, Axios reported Sunday. Immigration groups and Democrats have criticized border official’s use of the policy to rapidly expel migrants.
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Kaylee Greenlee is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
