U.S. immigrant advocates blast ‘cruel’ Biden immigration policies

Official White House Photo

Reuters reports that immigrant rights advocates are harshly criticizing President Joe Biden’s asylum policies, saying expulsions of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and other deterrent measures were “cruel, unlawful and ineffective.”  Read the letter to the President and top officials in which more than 100 organizations urged the administration to restore the ability of all migrants to claim asylum in the United States.

The letter begins:

“We, the 102 undersigned organizations, write to express our profound disappointment at Secretary Mayorkas’s remarks yesterday that outlined plans to increase prosecutions of families and individuals arriving at our border and maximize expulsions. Far from fulfilling its commitment to build a `safe, orderly, and humane immigration system,’ your administration continues to pursue cruel, unlawful, and ineffective deterrence-based policies that extend rather than dismantle the previous administration’s approach to migration. Since your administration took office in January 2021, there have been more than 3,000 documented kidnappings, extortions, rapes, and other attacks suffered by families and  individuals expelled from the southern border.”

Promising a change in the Trump administration’s harsh immigration measures, President Biden has reversed some of the restrictive policies but the Biden administration has extended a Trump-era policy allowing migrants to be quickly expelled from to Mexico ostensibly to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In some ways, President Biden can’t win on immigration.  “Border arrests have risen to 20-year highs in recent months, fueling Republican criticism that Biden’s decision to roll back some Trump restrictions has encouraged more people to cross into the United States.”

The signatories to the letter are:

5 Site Council
Al Otro Lado
ABQ Faith Works Collaborative
Aldea – The People’s Justice Center
American Friends Service Committee
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Amnesty International USA
Angry Tias and Abuelas of the RGV
Arizona Justice For Our Neighbors
Asylum Access México (AAMX) A.C.
Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP)
Austin Border Relief
Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)
Border Kindness
Bridges Faith Initiative
Casa del Migrante en Tijuana, A.C.
Caravan for the Children
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.
Center for Civic Policy
Center for Democracy in the Americas
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies
Central American Resource Center (CARECEN-LA)

Central American Resource Center Of Northern CA -CARECEN SF
Church of the Brethren, Office of Peacebuilding and Policy
Church World Service
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)
Desert Support for Asylum Seekers
Detention Watch Network
Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services, Inc.
ELCA AMMPARO
Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project
Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement
First Focus on Children
Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project
Freedom For Immigrants
Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum
Haitian Bridge Alliance
HIAS
Hispanic Federation
Hope Border Institute
Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative
Human Rights First
Humanitarian Outreach for Migrant Emotional Health (H.O.M.E.)
Immigrant Defenders Law Center
Immigrant Legal Defense
Innovation Law Lab
Interfaith Welcome Coalition
International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)
International Rescue Committee
Japanese American Citizens League
Jesuit Refugee Service/USA
Justice for Our Neighbors El Paso
Kino Border Initiative
La Raza Centro Legal San Francisco
La Raza Community Resource Center
La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE)
Laredo Immigrant Alliance
Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
Latin America Working Group
LUPE (La Union Del Pueblo Entero)

Madres e Hijos
Mercy Immigrant Advocate Gtoup
Migrant and Immigrant Community Action Project
National Immigrant Justice Center
National Immigration Law Center
National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)
National Justice for Our Neighbors
National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
New York Immigration Coalition
New York Justice for Our Neighbors, Inc.
Oxfam America
PolicyLink
Project Corazon, Lawyers for Good Government
Public Counsel
Quixote Center
Rainbow Bridge Asylum Seekers
Refugees International
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network
Save the Children
Seguimos Adelante
Sin Fronteras IAP
Sisters of Mercy Laredo,Texas
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
South Texas Human Rights Center
Southern Border Communities Coalition
Southern California Immigration Project
SPLC Action Fund
Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice
Taylor Levy Law
Team Brownsville Inc
Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors
The Advocates for Human Rights
The Sidewalk School
United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
VECINA
Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
We Are All America
Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center
Witness at the Border
Women’s Refugee Commission

KJ