 According to sources within Mexican law enforcement, in refugee centers like Tapachula and Matamoros, UN officials pressure Mexican immigration caseworkers to move migrants north to the United States as quickly as possible, regardless of status or process. Pictured: A staffer from the UN International Organization for Migration congratulates immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as a group of at least 25 asylum seekers were allowed to travel from a migrant camp in Mexico into the U.S. on February 25, 2021 in Matamoros, Mexico. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) |
Most Americans are not even aware that the United Nations is hard at work implementing the Biden administration's open borders policies for the U.S.-Mexican border. But UN agencies in Mexico play an important role in assisting migrants with U.S. asylum applications and quickly moving them north into the U.S. -- currently at an unprecedented level.
The Biden administration has requested that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) channel U.S. funds to non-profit groups in Mexico for identifying and referring the "neediest" asylum seekers to U.S. officials. Reuters reporting on the question of "neediest" includes persons with medical conditions, those who have experienced long periods of displacement, sexual minorities and victims of crime, trafficking and sexual violence. Details are sparse concerning whether the UNHCR realizes a fee or percentage for their channeling efforts.
For clarity: American taxpayer money is being filtered through the UN to foreign non-profits assisting migrants trying to enter the U.S. Turning over any portion of our immigration process to the UN is a disaster waiting to happen.
Here are the pertinent questions we should be asking:
- How are US taxpayers's best interests served by channeling their hard-earned money through the UN to non-profit organizations in Mexico?
- What checks does the Biden administration have or require on UN efforts? Can the American public have any confidence that the Biden administration will require UN agencies and/or their surrogates to abide by US law with respect to the expenditure of taxpayer monies and the enforcement of US law? Should the UN fail, what mechanism exists for accountability or recovery of US monies and interests?
- How do ordinary American taxpayers ensure UN accountability on the effective use of their tax dollars? Americans always have recourse to elections to replace ineffective and/or corrupt politicians. What recourse for accountability exists for UN officials and their NGO surrogates?
- How does the Biden administration ensure the UN will respect U.S. sovereign national security interests related to persons entering our country?
According to the UNHCR, the Biden administration's goal is to quickly allow entry of at least 25,000 people who have active immigration proceedings in the U.S. but were returned to wait in Mexico under the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program. Analysts anticipate that number to increase both steadily and exponentially.
In Matamoros, Mexico, the UNHCR drive to thwart MPP included registering people with active MPP cases for U.S. entry by the creation of a website: conecta.acnur.org. The website was launched in February 2021 and registered 12,000 people in its first 72-hours of operation. The UNHCR expanded their efforts with "alternative" ways to register asylum seekers that include using email, social media and cell phone channels.
The UNHCR is aggressively increasing its footprint in Mexico. In April, they announced that they were building a 300-bed shelter for asylum seekers in Tapachula, and actively recruiting "Protection Associates" to work in the city. As of May 2021, the vast majority of asylum seekers currently passing through the Tapachula facilities are Cubans, according to Mexican law enforcement officials working immigration cases there.
Americans should know that UNHCR operations have not been without scandal and controversy. In April 2019, NBC News ran a three-part series called "Asylum for Sale," detailing a seven-month long investigation across five countries which uncovered claims against UN officials. The claims stated the officials exploited refugees by demanding bribes for resettlement. The UNHCR rejected the claims. Nonetheless, NBC reported detailed and multiple specific cases of fraud, corruption, sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment by UNHCR personnel, partner staff or vendors/contractors.
Moreover, the efforts to move Central American migrants northward into the U.S. does not rest on the shoulders of the UNHCR alone. It is joined by other agencies in the UN system such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) which purports to conduct COVID-19 tests to "ensure protection of public health." Incidentally, the director general of the IOM, Antonio Vitorino, is a Portuguese socialist politician who chaired the Open Society Foundation's International Migration Initiative from 2015 to 2017. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also works alongside the UNHCR in Mexico, "ensuring humane treatment" of children and their families seeking asylum.
The NBC report highlights that over the past 20 years, UNHCR's funding increased eightfold, from $965.2 million in 2000 to $8.5 billion in 2019. The U.S. is cited as a "top 10 donor" of the UNHCR, having given over 1.9 billion USD in 2020.
The Biden administration's outsourcing of our asylum process to the UN and a few select non-profits in Mexico is recklessly dangerous. The Biden administration is ignoring immigration law. The UN and non-profits are actively working to subvert and reverse U.S. immigration law. According to sources within Mexican law enforcement, in refugee centers like Tapachula and Matamoros, UN officials pressure Mexican immigration caseworkers to move migrants north to the United States as quickly as possible, regardless of status or process. The net result: the U.S. has no idea who is entering the United States and the "asylum vetting process" is compromised. The UN is squandering U.S. taxpayer money on organizations and processes that undermine our national security.
Based on the administration's fixation with flooding the U.S. with immigrants -- whether legal or not -- it is not surprising that the Biden administration would stoop to this level -- but the thundering silence from the so-called "leadership" of the Republican party is also a disgrace.
Chris Farrell is Director of Investigations at Judicial Watch and Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
