Biden: Don’t close the door on refugees!
Daniel Delgado, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Lauren Alder Reid, Executive office for Immigration Review
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Biden's proposed Asylum Ban is shocking, potentially undoing 75 years of progress.
The memory of the St. Louis is fresh in our minds – the German Ocean Liner whose 937 passengers, majority Jewish, were turned away at the port of Miami in 1939 and sent back to Germany. We shudder at the knowledge that 227 of those passengers were killed because the U.S. did not offer them asylum. Since then, the U.S. wrote the right of asylum into law, to prevent further atrocities such as these. But now, Biden wants to undo that.
The Biden administration’s proposed rule would prevent refugees from being able to seek asylum in the U.S. unless they first ask for asylum in another country they pass through. This requires people in desperate need of safety and support to, at best, jump through more bureaucratic hoops, and, realistically, to do the impossible – apply for asylum in countries that do not have functional asylum systems. If this policy goes into effect, it will separate thousands of families, and lead to harm and death for people who are forced to return to danger in their country of origin. This proposal will and already has had the worst impacts for Black migrants and migrants of color, further entrenching racism and xenophobia as the law of the land.
Safety for asylum seekers is one of the most important legacies that emerged from the devastation of the Holocaust. Biden's proposed Transit Ban is undoing decades of progress, decades of critical protections for people fleeing violence and persecution. The Biden administration is trying to dismantle the asylum system as we know it. To do so, would be a disgrace to the memories of millions who have perished after being turned away from our borders.
Are we really going to reverse 75 years of progress in 2023? Tell the Biden administration: Now is not the time to dismantle the asylum system as we know it. Keep asylum.
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To:
Daniel Delgado, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Lauren Alder Reid, Executive office for Immigration Review
From:
[Your Name]
I'm writing with deep concern and anguish that the Administration would dismantle 75 years of protections for asylum seekers and refugees. I am thinking about the St. Louis, the German Ocean Liner whose 937 passengers, majority Jewish, were turned away at the port of Miami in 1939, and sent back to Germany. Over 200 of the passengers were then killed in the Holocaust.
That was a pivotal moment in the history of our asylum laws, and I am horrified that you’re enacting a return to policies that will put thousands, if not millions, of lives in danger. This is a disgrace to the legacy that emerged after the destruction of the Holocaust.
This transit ban will impact migrants of color and Black migrants the most. We've seen time and time again where these cycles of racism and dehumanization lead: In 1939, President Roosevelt himself argued that refugees posed a serious threat to national security, but history has of course proven that to be far from the truth – merely xenophobic hysteria.
We are once again at a crossroads in history. We can build an immigration system that is fair and just, that welcomes those fleeing from persecution and violence, or we can send people back to danger and possibly their deaths. You have a choice. We demand that you rescind the dangerous transit ban and restore asylum rights in the U.S.
Sincerely,