Hundreds of immigrant and civil rights organizations have added their names to a letter urging President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to end the administration’s use of the flawed Title 42 policy, calling the Stephen Miller order “a stain on the conscience of the United States.”
“The United States encourages other countries to uphold refugee law and welcome people fleeing across borders in search of protection, including those now forced to flee Ukraine,” more than 300 organizations said in the March 10 letter. But just this week, the policy has been used to block Ukrainian families at the southern border. “We urge your administration to lead by example and uphold refugee law at U.S. borders.”
“For nearly two years the U.S. government has ruthlessly blocked and expelled people seeking protection at the southern border without allowing them to apply for asylum, as U.S. and international law requires,” groups write. “To our dismay the Biden-Harris administration has not only failed to end this illegal and unjustifiable policy but renewed, defended, and expanded it with illegal expulsions now being carried out to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and Mexico.”
The Biden administration has in fact kept Title 42 in place longer than the previous administration ever did. Groups write that there have been more than 8,700 reports of violence against asylum-seekers blocked or expelled under the Biden administration, including instances of kidnapping, rape, and torture. Refugees have been “refouled to the countries where they had fled persecution and torture in violation of U.S.law and treaty obligations.” At least 20,000 Haitians have been deported, despite internal warnings that these deportations would also risk refoulement.
Organizations make this plea as a recent right-wing ruling is ordering the administration to no longer exclude unaccompanied minors from the order. "This decision, requiring the Biden administration to block unaccompanied children from seeking safety at our borders, will place thousands of children directly in harm's way," National Center for Youth Law attorney Neha Desai told CBS News. "There is no public health rationale for preventing children from seeking asylum and expelling them to life-threatening dangers."
That’s echoed by hundreds of organizations, which said the “policy has never been about public health,” noting the administration “has lifted travel restrictions for other travelers.”
“The Title 42 policy is a stain on the conscience of the United States,” the groups continued. “Former and current government officials, members of Congress, federal courts, and UNHCR have sounded the same urgent alarm: the Title 42 policy violates domestic law and international treaty obligations to protect refugees from forced return to persecution and torture. The continued use of the Title 42 policy indelibly marks your administration as complicit in human rights abuses on a massive scale.”
During a press call on Thursday, Senate leaders also continued their urgent call for the Biden administration to terminate the Stephen Miller order.
"I continue to be deeply disappointed in the administration's response," Sen. Chuck Schumer said. “Continuing to defend Title 42 in court will only cause more harm,” Sen. Robert Menendez added. While Reuters reported that a number of senior officials said the administration is “leading toward” ending the policy, we heard the same thing last summer. The time is now, the groups said. Advocates noted that the administration has not yet even appealed last week’s anti-child order:
“In the wake of the recent court rulings, we call on your administration to immediately end the Title 42 policy, stop defending this illegal and inhumane policy in court, restore meaningful access to asylum at U.S. borders, and welcome with dignity the families and individuals seeking protection in the United States,” organizations said. See the full letter, and signatories, here.
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