New York, NY, January 18, 2022 – A brand new IRC report, launched one yr after President Biden’s inauguration, “Protection Denied: Humanitarian Consequences at the U.S. Southern Border One Year Into the Biden Administration,” requires instant coverage change on the US-Mexico border.
One yr into the Biden administration, a few of the most extreme Trump-era insurance policies which have decimated entry to asylum—generally often called “Title 42” and “Stay in Mexico”— stay in power. These measures successfully “externalize” asylum past U.S. borders, making U.S. territory unreachable to international nationals – even when they’re exercising their human proper to hunt asylum – and require Mexico and different nations to hold more and more difficult burdens to satisfy humanitarian wants. Quite than welcoming with dignity, asylum seekers’ rights proceed to be violated by the U.S. These draconian and inhumane U.S. border insurance policies have pushed asylum seekers into border territories the place they’re particularly focused by organized crime and different corrupt actors.
Olga Byrne, Director of Asylum and Immigration Authorized Providers on the Worldwide Rescue Committee, stated:
“The Biden Administration has made vital progress on defending the fitting to hunt asylum—together with by taking actions that reverse dangerous authorized interpretations obstructing safety for survivors of home violence and gang violence. Nevertheless, by failing to finish insurance policies of border externalization that push asylum-seekers again into Mexico, the Biden Administration has denied folks fleeing violence and persecution their authorized proper to hunt security within the U.S. and returned them to harmful conditions in Northern Mexico.
“These insurance policies have extreme humanitarian penalties for asylum-seekers, who discover themselves vulnerable to homicide, rape, extortion, and different violence. That is notably true for Black migrants and girls, who expertise acute discrimination and violence throughout their journey and alongside the border. The tough actuality is that these circumstances typically resemble the threats and risks that asylum-seekers fled of their dwelling nations.
“Civil society has the experience and the infrastructure to assist the administration obtain its targets of protected, common, and humane migration processes that respect the fitting to hunt asylum. We name on the Biden Administration to take the mandatory motion to finish border externalization insurance policies that put asylum-seekers in danger, and to put money into capability to welcome asylum-seekers within the U.S.”
The IRC’s new report urges the Biden Administration to:
- Finish Title 42. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention ought to instantly revoke the Title 42 expulsions order and the associated Interim Ultimate Rule. DHS ought to comply with suggestions by public well being consultants on the protected processing of asylum seekers on the border in coordination with civil society in northern Mexico and southern US border communities. Looking for asylum is a proper, even throughout a pandemic.
- Finish MPP as soon as and for all. The Biden administration should aggressively pursue steps to terminate MPP as rapidly as potential.
- Instantly develop capability to course of asylum seekers at ports of entry alongside the Southern border.
- Fund border shelters to deliver humanitarian reception to scale. Border shelters have supplied dignified welcome to asylum seekers for many years, and have considerably enhanced coordination and greatest practices lately regardless of challenges posed by COVID. Reception at border shelters can and may function a gateway to a good and humane asylum course of, starting with instant humanitarian providers and a authorized orientation that ensures asylum seekers perceive the following steps of their course of and how one can join with authorized and social service suppliers of their vacation spot places. Civil society has the experience and the infrastructure to assist the administration obtain its targets of protected, common, and humane migration processes that respect the fitting to hunt asylum. Moreover, funding and assist also needs to be prolonged to supply safety providers for susceptible populations all through the migration pathway.
The Worldwide Rescue Committee (IRC) has supplied responsive humanitarian providers to migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border since 2019 as a part of our broader response alongside the area. The IRC has additionally strongly advocated for the restoration of entry to the asylum system on the U.S. southern border together with by means of rescission of Title 42 and termination of Stay in Mexico.
ABOUT THE IRC
The Worldwide Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, serving to to revive well being, security, training, financial wellbeing, and energy to folks devastated by battle and catastrophe. Based in 1933 on the name of Albert Einstein, the IRC is at work in over 40 nations and over 20 U.S. cities serving to folks to outlive, reclaim management of their future, and strengthen their communities. Be taught extra at www.rescue.org and comply with the IRC on Twitter & Facebook.
