In the face of anti-immigrant rhetoric and fearmongering, some in congress are poised to pass the most sweeping anti-immigrant legislation since the signing of the Refugee Convention. Make no mistake, these proposals will eviscerate our asylum protections, cause extreme human suffering and exploitation, violate international law, and betray our moral compass as a community of welcome. At the same time, they will fail to serve the purported purpose of addressing numbers of people at the border. We know from 40 years of experience that enforcement- and exclusion-based immigration policies do nothing to stop people from moving, especially when they are forced to move. Our asylum system serves as a crucial lifeline for those who have no choice but to seek safety on our shores; yet, the U.S. is home to less than 1 percent of the world's displaced population. We can welcome these individuals, but lawmakers must pass legislation that adequately funds our adjudications and humanitarian infrastructure instead of pandering to calls for anti-immigrant measures. If passed, the proposed policy will: Violate the right to seek asylum by raising the standard that a person must prove before even getting to present their full claim;
Create chaos and increase trafficking and other harms at the border by creating new authority-and, in some cases, requirements-to deny entry for all but some at the border when arrivals reach an arbitrary number; and
Trade help for some, such as Afghans and families, while harming countless others.
Politicians in Washington are playing political games with real lives, and their proposed bill will result in violations of human rights without addressing the issues at the border they claim to fix. Call your Senator TODAY and tell them: Migrant lives are not political pawns, and we demand that the U.S. safeguard our asylum system. Vote "no" on the "border supplemental!"
UPDATE: Early this morning, the Senate passed the foreign aid supplemental bill (H.R. 815) (providing funding for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other aid) by a vote margin of 70-29. Importantly, no immigration-related amendments were added to the foreign aid bill though several were proposed including the Senate's bipartisan border deal. At this point, it is unclear what the House will do with the foreign aid bill given Speaker Johnson's outright rejection of it. Today's Senate vote follows the months-long negotiations on the bipartisan bill which failed last week to pass the Senate on a largely party line vote. |
|
|---|
|
.png "Congressional building")
