The Biden administration released a final rule implementing a ban on access to asylum for people who travel to the United States through Mexico in order to seek protection.
National Immigrant Justice Center Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy responded with the following statement:
“With this final rule, the Biden administration has officially abandoned its commitment and obligation to rebuild the U.S. asylum system and uphold our country’s historic commitment to offer refuge to people fleeing persecution. At a time when we should be preparing to celebrate the end of an inhumane mass expulsion policy that turned away people who arrived at our border seeking protection, we are instead bracing for a new set of cruel policies that will endanger lives and punish those who have come to the United States in search of safety.
“People around the world are increasingly being displaced from their homes by political and social oppression and the consequences of climate change. The new restrictive pathways the Biden administration lauds in this new rule are no replacement for a functional and fair asylum system that complies with U.S. and international human rights law. U.S. communities at the border, in Chicago, and throughout the country have been working for months to welcome newly arrived migrant neighbors with compassion, largely without any support from the federal government. It is a tragedy that the Biden administration has turned away from this approach in favor of costly militarization and unjust barriers.”