HRC Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants

U.S. Response delivered by Jan Levin
Senior Human Rights Officer

Geneva
March 7, 2008

Thank you, Mr. President.
         
The United States appreciates this opportunity to respond to Professor Bustamante’s presentation concerning his country visit to the United States.
                             
During the Special Rapporteur’s visit to the United States from 30 April to 18 May of last year, my government was pleased that he was able to meet with senior officials from the Departments of State and Homeland Security, had the opportunity to visit the Florence Detention Center in Arizona, and met with Border Patrol officials stationed in Nogales, Arizona.

I regret to say that my government was disappointed with the Special Rapporteur’s report, which contains significant misstatements and misinterpretations of U.S. law and policy.  We believe this to be the result, at least in part, of the Special Rapporteur’s failure to collect and take into consideration the information available to him through U.S. Government channels. 

The Special Rapporteur’s report focuses only on a narrow slice of the migrant population in the United States and makes no effort to recognize notable, positive aspects of U.S. migration policy.  This results in an incomplete and biased picture of the human rights of migrants in my country.  The United States has one of the most generous immigration programs in the world, including a clear path to citizenship.  For example, between 2000 and 2006, the United States admitted more than 6 million foreign nationals into the American community as lawful permanent residents, granted full citizenship by naturalization to over 4.37 million individuals, resettled more than 343,000 refugees, granted asylum to more than 215,000 refugees, and granted temporary protected status to more than 340,000 nationals of countries facing armed conflicts or environmental disasters around the world.  Yet the Special Rapporteur’s report made no mention of the rights and protections accorded to temporary visitors, or the many opportunities that lead to successful integration and civic participation of new citizens and residents. 

Mr. President, multiple U.S. agencies reviewed an initial draft of the Special Rapporteur’s report.  My government provided comments, including both factual corrections regarding U.S. Government policy and background information on the significant protections in place for migrants present in the United States.  We regret that much of this information was not included in the final draft.  By not including this information in his final report, the Special Rapporteur appears to have attempted to further a preconceived view that he held prior to his visit.  Such rigidity does little to address the needs or further the interests of the huge and diverse migrant community resident in the United States.

In our response to the Rapporteur’s draft, we made clear that the U.S. Government is open to discussing all issues relating to the human rights of migrants with the Rapporteur.  We reiterate this offer now and would welcome the opportunity to provide detailed information on our many programs.  Our full response to Mr. Bustamante’s report will be available for review on the website of U.S. Mission Geneva early next week at geneva.usmission.gov.

Thank you, Mr. President.