In response to the Biden administration’s decision to cement harmful asylum policies and flout United States obligations under international human rights and refugee law, Amy Fischer, Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA, made the following statement:
“Rather than showing any kind of moral leadership, the Biden administration remains hellbent on doubling down on deadly deterrence policies that are rooted in white supremacy and exacerbate the traumas and harms of people seeking safety in the United States.
“As the United States continues to witness the racist and anti-Black rhetoric about Haitian immigrants, we must also be equally disgusted and dismayed by policies that put Haitians, and other Black, Brown, and Indigenous people seeking safety, in danger.
“Racist rhetoric about invasions at the border and fear mongering about how people seeking safety are security threats fuel policies that deny people their human right to seek safety, force them to wait in danger in Mexico for months, jail them in inhumane conditions, and deport them back to danger.
“The policies that the Biden Administration is cementing today have been temporarily in place for months now and the results are clear: they don’t work.
“The United States, a country that was once seen as a beacon of humanitarian protection, is presenting a false choice to people fleeing for their lives and who are now at risk of kidnapping, extortion, and physical and sexual violence in Mexico: either remain in danger in Mexico for an indefinite period of time until their names are called for a lottery into the U.S., or escape the danger in Mexico and cross irregularly where they are more likely to be deported back anyway without due process.
“The Biden administration is clinging to policies of cruelty when there are solutions on the table that can both solve the issues at the border and provide meaningful relief for cities like Springfield, New York, Chicago, and Denver without human suffering and with respect for human rights and dignity.
“Instead of spending billions of taxpayer dollars to fuel cruel border policies that create heartbreaking human rights and humanitarian crises, the United States must invest in a coordinated welcome and reception system that meets the immediate and long-term needs of people seeking safety.
“Such a system must simultaneously meet the needs of state, local and tribal communities who can reap the windfall benefits of new federal funding avenues, spending power of new arrivals, and new tax revenue.
“The Biden administration must immediately end the asylum ban and the border shutdown, and restore access to asylum at the border.
“It’s time to rebuild the foundation of asylum and restore human dignity and human rights to the border by seeing those coming to seek a new life as an opportunity rather than a threat.”
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