The Biden administration’s continued use of an anti-asylum policy cooked up by noted white supremacist Stephen Miller has pushed already vulnerable people into further danger, a leading human rights organization said this week. Human Rights First said in a report released Tuesday that it has tracked at least 6,356 acts of violence against asylum-seekers and other migrants who’ve been deported since January.

Researchers said in their report that attacks against deported people have included “a Honduran woman violently beaten with a machete in front of her 11-year-old son,” “a Guatemalan man tortured by a cartel and turned away by [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] CBP at the Laredo port of entry despite being covered in blood,” and “a transgender woman beaten and raped by gang members after CBP expelled her to Reynosa.” 

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The report noted the “enormous harm” the continued use of Title 42 has inflicted on LGBTQ asylum-seekers and Black asylum-seekers in particular. Black and LGBTQ immigrants already face disproportionate danger in the federal immigration system within the U.S. This appears to be no different for asylum-seekers at the southern border.

“The Al Otro Lado survey data reveals that 89% of LGBTQ asylum seekers in the northern Mexican border states who responded to the survey were targeted in an attack or attempted attack or received threats in the prior month,” the report said. “In addition, analysis of the Al Otro Lado survey data from mid-June to mid-August 2021 shows that nearly 20% of Haitian asylum seekers in the northern Mexican border region were victims of abuse by the police, including beatings, extortion, and threats.” Advocates have recently called on the Biden administration to halt the deportation of Haitian asylum-seekers, citing the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake. 

The report raises even more alarm following the Supreme Court’s horrific, partisan decision Tuesday night that forces the Biden administration to reinstate the previous administration’s Remain in Mexico policy.

Published just hours before that ruling, Human Rights First said that asylum-seekers deported under Title 42 face many of the same dangers that asylum-seekers subject to Remain in Mexico endured. “A lawsuit launched by Texas and Missouri is attempting to force the Biden administration to restart Remain in Mexico, which would only cause greater suffering, violations of U.S. law, and disorder,” Human Rights First said. “The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on the administration’s request to stay a highly flawed federal court ruling effectively ordering DHS to re-implement the policy.” Tuesday night, the high court’s right-wing justices said it must revive this cruel and unlawful policy.

The Human Rights First report further cites a “rare rebuke” by the United Nations, which expressed alarm at the Biden administration’s Title 42 deportation of Central Americans deep into Mexico.

“Individuals or families aboard those flights who may have urgent protection needs risk being sent back to the very dangers they have fled in their countries of origin in Central America without any opportunity to have those needs assessed and addressed,” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative Matthew Reynolds said. “These expulsion flights of non-Mexicans to the deep interior of Mexico constitute a troubling new dimension in enforcement of the COVID-related public health order known as Title 42.”

“Human Rights First implores the Biden administration to immediately end these dangerous, inhumane, and rights-violating policies, uphold U.S. refugee law, and immediately restart asylum processing at ports of entry,” the organization said. “The administration’s continuing failure to comply with U.S. refugee laws and treaties is inexcusable.”