The US sanctions transport companies that facilitate “irregular migration”

USA will restrict visas to owners and directors of charter flight, land and maritime transportation companies that facilitate “irregular migration,” a new policy when there are less than nine months until the November presidential elections.

The influx of migrants is one of the issues that worries American voters and the Democratic president Joe Bidena candidate for re-election, is trying to promote what he calls a migration “ordered”.

Republicans accuse him of not doing enough in this regard. In January, US authorities intercepted migrants and asylum seekers 124,220 times on the border with Mexicothat is, half that in December but too many in the opinion of the conservatives.

It’s not just about numbers. For years, the US government has denounced the exploitation of migrants, many of them poor Latin Americans, at the hands of traffickers who make them pay exorbitant sums of money and expose them to danger.

Given this situation, the State Department announced a new policy this Wednesday. Washington restricts visas to “the owners, executives and senior officials of charter flights and land and sea transportation companies that provide transportation services intended to be used primarily by persons who intend to migrate irregularly to the United States,” states the spokesman Matthew Miller it’s a statement.

It is about sanctioning those who “take advantage of vulnerable migrants and facilitate irregular migration around the world and towards USA”, he points out.

Because “no one should take advantage of vulnerable migrants: not human traffickers, not private companies, not public officials, not governments,” he insists. Miller.

This policy is the result of working with “partners throughout the region,” said Eric Jacobstein, deputy assistant secretary of state, at a press conference.

It will be examined on a case by case basis.

“The majority of charter flights from Cuba (…) to Managua are not for tourism, they are people with the intention of migrating irregularly to the United States, so we are evaluating each transportation company,” Jacobstein declared.

In November Washington It has already restricted visas for companies that operate charter flights to Nicaragua with migrants in an irregular situation. Now it is extended to the rest of transportation, but it will apply only to foreigners.

USA has reiterated once again that migrants often take risks in vain.

Since last May 12, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expelled “more than 550,000 individuals who were on the border with Mexico, including more than 90,000 family members,” explained Blas Núñez-Neto, undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security during the press conference.

“Those numbers are records,” he pointed out.

In May the government lifted a health rule that allowed almost all migrants who arrived without the necessary documentation to enter to be blocked at the border.

“Legal routes”

To counteract the suspension, he introduced “legal avenues”such as making an appointment through a mobile phone application (CBP One), completing the procedures in the countries they pass through or taking advantage of humanitarian and family reunification permits.

“More than 357,000” national Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela They have entered with humanitarian programs for these countries, Núñez-Neto specified. And more than 459,000 people have achieved it through the mobile phone application.

The ability to maneuver is limited, which is why the Executive insists on asking Congress to adopt an immigration reform bill blocked by Republicans, who consider it too weak.

Under pressure from the former president Donald Trump, big favorite for the Republican presidential nomination, conservative congressmen have chosen to stop any border reform until after the elections. (With information from AFP)