U.S. and international religious leaders have sent a letter to President Joe Biden and other government officials pleading with the administration to abandon plans to issue a travel ban and other severe restrictions on asylum seekers.
Especially egregious to the 165 signatories is a new Department of Homeland Security rule barring asylum eligibility to immigrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without first seeking protection in other nations enroute to the United States.
“Implementation of the new rule will not only be ineffective, but also harmful, inhumane and deadly for the most vulnerable,” the leaders of multiple faith groups and nonprofits wrote in the Jan. 23 letter. “Rooted and renewed in our collective faith teachings and values, we are called to ensure that our laws promote and protect the dignity of each individual. This means critically addressing unjust and oppressive public policies and their negative impacts on human lives.”
The proposed travel ban is among numerous immigration initiatives announced by the White House this month as part of an overall effort to reduce the surge of migrants and illegal crossings at the border. Those include offering temporary parole to eligible Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan immigrants, expelling up to 30,000 immigrants per month to Mexico under Title 42 and requiring those fleeing persecution to apply online for asylum while still outside the U.S.
Immigrant advocates have decried the administration’s overall strategy as a violation of international treaty and of American law and values.
While welcoming the expansion of temporary parole programs for some migrants, immigrant advocates have decried the administration’s overall strategy as a violation of international treaty and of American law and values.
“The proposed rulemaking that would implement a transit ban for many traveling through third countries is extremely problematic, as is the continued reliance on Title 42,” the National Immigration Forum said earlier this month. “People of limited means will continue to have difficulty accessing humanitarian parole, as has been the case for Venezuelans. We also hope the administration will consider increasing the cap on humanitarian parole visas if circumstances warrant it. Ultimately, the president and Congress still need to work together to adopt much-needed immigration reforms — including, but not limited to, the border — to solve the challenges we face.”
Failure to alter course will place the Biden administration in the position of emulating the Trump administration’s notorious immigration practices, the letter from faith leaders warned. “As evidenced by similar versions of an asylum transit ban under the Trump administration, curtailing access to asylum leads to serious human consequences and violates our moral and legal obligations to those fleeing violence and persecution.”
Trump’s policies resulted in mass suffering in the form of detentions, family separations, legal limbo and expulsions of asylum seekers without benefit of the judicial or administrative process they are legally due. The 2020 version of the travel ban was blocked by a federal judge for violating immigration laws and putting migrants at greater risk, the letter added.
“Following in these flawed footsteps leads the U.S. further down a dangerous path that wrongfully places the emphasis on punitive measures, deterrence, detention and deportation rather than meaningful access to protection.”
The letter also cited a survey by the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at the University of California, San Diego, that found 73.4% of Americans agree the United States should extend asylum to immigrants facing persecution. Religion also compels support for humanitarian measures.
“Across faith traditions and practices, the message is clear: We are called by our sacred texts and faith principles to approach one another with love — not fear,” the letter says. “Our diverse faith traditions compel us to love our neighbor, accompany the vulnerable, and welcome the sojourner — regardless of place of birth, religion or ethnicity. Importantly, our faiths also urge us to boldly resist and dismantle systems of oppression.”
Separately, Welcome with Dignity and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition convened a Jan. 23 webinar in which faith leaders urged Biden to ditch the travel ban rule.
Joyce Ajlouny
“This country has the moral imperative and the resources to welcome immigrants with open arms,” said Joyce Ajlouny, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee. “Instead, we see asylum bans, more funding for militarizing our borders, and more funding for detention and deportation. Concrete and razor wire, armed agents and prison cells only cause further harm. Instead, we need to invest in programs that benefit everyone in the U.S. — citizens and new arrivals alike.”
Mark Hetfield
Mark Hetfield, president of the Jewish humanitarian and refugee resettlement group HIAS, recalled when the United States turned away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi German in 1939, resulting in their eventual deaths in the Holocaust.
“Asserting that never again would people be trapped inside their country of persecution, the international community established — and the United States ratified — the Refugee Convention,” he said. “The U.S. now has asylum laws, but the Biden transit ban will literally place those laws out of reach. This is illegal and immoral. We urge the administration and Congress to resource the asylum system to make timely and fair decisions, rather than to relegate asylum as a right that can be neither accessed nor exercised.”
Tracey Horan
Modern versions of such tragedies are happening at the U.S.-Mexico border, said Sister Tracey Horan, associate director of education and advocacy with the Kino Border Institute.
“Just last week, we received a group of Cubans at our migrant center who faced threats, robbery and extortion at the hands of Mexican officials. Despite these abuses, the proposed asylum travel ban would require people like them to seek protection in Mexico before coming to the U.S. to do so. We hope President Biden, himself a Catholic, will discern his actions in light of Catholic teachings and choose paths to welcome over barriers, like his proposed travel ban, that exclude families seeking safety.”
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