Julián Castro joins Democrats criticizing Biden over humanitarian

Julián Castro, the former US presidential candidate, has become the latest prominent Democrat to attack Joe Biden for his handling of the humanitarian crisis at the southern border, lamenting his use of a contested Trump-era policy and warning that the president’s “baffling” approach could tear the Democratic coalition apart.

In an interview with the Guardian, Castro said he was disappointed that the US president had remained silent about images of border patrol agents on horseback corralling Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas.

“Those images of Haitians being treated like animals demanded moral leadership from the president, it baffles me why he hasn’t said anything about it,” he said.

Castro also had strong words about the Biden administration’s ongoing use of Title 42, an obscure public health law that the Trump administration seized upon under the guise of the pandemic to clamp down on immigration across the Mexican border. Under Biden, the Department of Homeland Security has continued to invoke Title 42 as a means of quickly deporting more than 1,400 Haitians back to Haiti just this week.

Castro, who served under Barack Obama as housing and urban development secretary, said Title 42 mistreats desperate people by revoking their right, enshrined in US and international law, to claim asylum. It went against the advice of public health experts and was a direct contradiction of promises Biden made during the presidential campaign “to bring compassion and common sense to our immigration approach, instead of Trump’s cruelty”, Castro said.

He added: “This is a big mistake politically. If Biden doesn’t live up to those promises, he risks the collapse of the Democratic coalition that helped elect him.”

The situation at the border has rapidly developed into a full-blown humanitarian crisis, with up to 14,000 Haitians, many emanating from Central and South America, amassing in a makeshift camp in Del Rio earlier this week. US authorities have been returning hundreds of migrants each day on flights to Haiti.

The impact of the deportations has been aggravated by the multiple crises currently battering Haiti, including political collapse, gang violence and the aftermath of a major earthquake. “It amounts to cruelty to send people back to a place where there’s absolutely nothing for them,” Castro said.

As the border crisis intensifies, Biden is facing mounting criticism, even from within his own administration. On Thursday the US envoy to Haiti, Daniel Foote, resigned, expressing in an angry letter his dismay at the “inhumane” mass deportations.

Top Democrats have also spoken out. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said on the Senate floor “we cannot continue these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies”.

The most troubling aspect for progressives of Biden’s apparent determination to stick with the rapid deportations of Haitians is that the use of Title 42 as an anti-immigration device was masterminded by Stephen…