「米史上最悪」の移民危機、バイデン氏に責任　米共和党議員団

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】米共和党の上院議員団は３０日、ジョー・バイデン大統領が意図的に移民危機をつくり出したと非難した。人権団体は移民危機について、大勢の移民が虐待やレイプなどの被害を受けたと主張している。（写真は米・メキシコ国境を流れるリオグランデ川を渡るハイチ人親子）
　メキシコから入国する移民の数はここ数週間で急増している。共和党指導部が配布した２通の文書は、バイデン氏とカマラ・ハリス副大統領が「米史上最悪」の移民危機をつくりだしたとしている。
　議員団は記者会見で、バイデン氏が国境問題で弱腰な姿勢が、大勢の移民が米国を目指して北上する旅の途中で悪質な人身売買業者の犠牲となる事態を招いていると主張した。
　テキサス州選出のテッド・クルーズ上院議員は「南部国境で今、日を追うごとに危機が高まっている。バイデン氏とハリス氏がつくり出したものだ」として、「それにもかかわらず、大統領も、副大統領も、民主党議員も気に掛けていない」と続けた。
　２０２１年度（２０年１０月～２１年９月）のメキシコ国境での不法移民の拘束者数は約１７０万人で、新型コロナウイルスのパンデミック（世界的な大流行）などで少なかった前年度の約４倍に増加した。２２年度上半期は１００万人を超える見通し。
　クルーズ氏は「民主党が多数派を握る議会で国境警備法案の審議が進まないのは、民主党が政治的な問題として、不法移民を支援すると決めたからだ」と主張した。「民主党は、昨年流入した不法移民２００万人を未来の票田と見なしている。幼い子どもが身体的・性的暴行を受けることになる結果もいとわない」と続けた。
　議員団は、バイデン氏がドナルド・トランプ前政権が導入した移民抑制政策「タイトル４２」を終わらせれば、移民の数がさらに増加すると警告している。「タイトル４２」は新型ウイルス流行国からの難民・移民を迅速に追放できるというもの。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/04/01-14:14）

US Republicans accused President Joe Biden Wednesday of deliberately manufacturing an immigration crisis that rights campaigners say has seen thousands of migrants tortured and raped, as dramatic increases in already record-breaking entries are expected.
Crossings from Mexico have been surging in recent weeks, and two memos being circulated by the party leadership argue that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had made the current border crisis the worst in American history.
A group of Republican senators told reporters Biden's weakness on the border was to blame for thousands of migrants being victimized by unscrupulous traffickers on their perilous journeys north.
Today a crisis is raging at the southern border. It was created by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The crisis rages every single day, Texas senator Ted Cruz told reporters.
And yet our president doesn't care, our vice president doesn't care. Democrats in Congress don't care.
Border guards caught illegal migrants 1.7 million times in the last fiscal year -- the highest number ever recorded and four times th expulsions posted in Donald Trump's last year in the White House, when numbers were down in part because of the pandemic.
Border officials are expected to announce in the next few days that encounters have passed one million for the first six months of the new financial year.
- 'Influx' -
The reason why you can't see border security legislation moving in this Democratic Congress is because the Democratic party has decided, as a political matter, they support illegal immigration, Cruz added.
They view the two million illegal immigrants who came last year as future Democratic voters. And if the consequence of it is little children being physically and sexually assaulted, they're willing to take that consequence.
The senators warned of a greater surge to come should Biden end Title 42, the Trump policy launched during the pandemic that allows border authorities to quickly expel asylum seekers and other migrants who have come from countries hit by an infectious disease outbreak.
This, they warned, will worsen the inward flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl, with volumes increasing by 40 percent last year, as well as crack cocaine, heroin and crystal meth.
One hundred thousand young people have died in America just this past year alone from drug overdoses. Make no mistake -- these drugs are coming across the porous border to our south, said Tennessee senator Bill Hagerty.
Title 42 expires at the end of March, although the change would only take effect in late May, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may decide as early as Wednesday whether to renew it.
We are planning for multiple contingencies, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield told reporters, conceding that its discontinuation would spark an influx of people to the border.
- 'Nightmarish policy' -
Biden's own Democratic Party is divided, with progressives pressuring the administration to revoke the public health order and moderates warning the move could spell disaster without a firm plan to deal with an influx of asylum seekers.
Senator Joe Manchin, a centrist Democrat from conservative West Virginia, said Title 42 had been an important tool in combating the spread of Covid-19.
Migrant advocates argue that the order is becoming outdated as the pandemic eases, and an affront to international conventions allowing people to claim asylum.
Advocacy organization Human Rights First (HRF) said earlier this month Title 42 expulsions had led to nearly 10,000 reports of kidnap, torture, rape and other violent attacks against people blocked in or sent back to Mexico.
Similar concerns have been expressed by the National Immigration Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and the International Rescue Committee.
Kennji Kizuka, HRF's associate director for refugee protection research, said the reports represented just a tiny fraction of the true cost of the nightmarish policy.