While the media laser-focuses on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, another invasion is about to take place at OUR own borders, this under a shroud of silence from the White House, according to Telemundo reports pointing to the looming repeal of Title 42. The rule, implemented by President Trump during the pandemic, allows the federal government to expel migrants crossing from a foreign country in the interest of preserving public health.
At the Spanish-speaking networks only Telemundo, and CNN En Español to a lesser degree, gave any weight to this imminent national security threat. This clip from Telemundo's late-night newscast quotes an Axios report claiming that Biden officials fear a “mass migration event” if COVID policies end. However, when senior D.C. correspondent Cristina Londoño asked the government to confirm the existence of a contingency plan to deal with a possible massive arrival of migrants at the border, she was met with silence.
JOHANA SUÁREZ: There are fears of a massive arrival of migrants at the southern border with the elimination of Title 42, the rule that allows the denial of entry to people who cross seeking asylum. According to reports, the United States is already preparing buses and tents to deal with this wave of migration. Cristina Londoño has more.
CRISTINA LONDOÑO: Fearing a surge of more than 170,000 immigrants, the Biden administration is making extraordinary preparations, according to Axios, because they fear a mass exodus when they abolish title 42 with which former President Donald Trump closed the border at the peak of the pandemic.
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We asked the government to confirm the existence of this contingency plan in case of a massive arrival of migrants at the border, but they did not answer.
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It is estimated that there are more than 25,000 immigrants waiting in Mexico for the border to reopen.
It doesn´t look good. As the media covers up the inconvenient news of upcoming waves of migrants hitting our borders in their quest for asylum, 25,000 are already in Mexico waiting for the good-to-go from Uncle Sam; right behind them, some 170,000 more are expected to arrive and be sent to different locations in the US.
Left unsaid by Telemundo is the fact that the statute gives the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the power to determine whether contagious disease in a foreign country poses a serious danger of spreading in the U.S., whether by people or property entering the country. Accordingly, as the pandemic comes to an end, it is only logic that the CDC lift the measure.
Instead of the silent treatment the White House and the Hispanic media -so vociferous when it comes to the safety of other nation´s borders- should be publicly addressing a national threat versus quietly devising a "contingency plan" with other government agencies that includes the use of buses and planes to transfer the migrants, and - hear this - building new tents (formerly called ´cages´ under Trump) to house them.
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