A Year On, Biden Admin Must Realize Commitments to Asylum Seekers

Please see below statement from Refugees International President Eric Schwartz:

“A year ago today, President Biden issued an executive order promising safe and orderly processing of asylum seekers. It said that this administration’s border policy would not “ignore the humanity” of people compelled to leave their homes and come to the United States.  

Regrettably, the Biden administration has over the past year expelled well over a million people from the border without access to any process and under a policy that the executive order promised to reconsider. Our ports of entry remain closed to almost all asylum seekers.   

There is no question that addressing forced migration issues is one of the most challenging issues confronting policy makers. 

But there is also no question that we can do better. We can and must act more fairly, more humanely, and more consistent with human rights standards.  

Lives are at stake. 

It is urgent that the President reaffirm the legality of asylum seeking, reassert the humanity of immigrants, and recommit to policies that provide protection to people seeking refuge from persecution and violence. The United States must not send people seeking refuge to danger and insecurity or foist the responsibility to protect them on other countries in the region. Instead, the United States must comply with refugee law at the border and put an end to the previous administration’s policies once and for all.”  

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Sarah Sheffer at ssheffer@refugeesinternational.org. 

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COVER PHOTO: An immigrant family from Brazil waits to enter a U.S. Border Patrol detention facility after walking from the U.S. Mexican border on December 08, 2021 through the city of Yuma, Arizona. Photo by John Moore/Getty Images