Today, the President announced he will issue an Executive Order and interim regulation creating yet another harmful and unworkable border policy that flies in the face of this administration’s proclaimed support for survivors of gender-based violence. This time, the administration will shut down the border starting almost immediately and give CBP authority to deny entry to anyone seeking asylum along our southern border for the next 14 days and deport those who enter the U.S. between checkpoints without giving them an opportunity to have their asylum claims heard and processed. After 14 days, border closure would again be triggered anytime CBP encounters reach an arbitrary cap of 2,500 people per day. This new policy relies on the same statutory authority as the prior administration’s failed Title 42 and illegal Muslim Ban.
We know that these kinds of deterrence-based policies do not stop people from trying to seek safety, they just make it that much more dangerous to do so, with a disproportionate impact on survivors, particularly survivors of color. It also flies in the face of long-standing asylum law and treaty obligations.
This is in addition to other recent, misguided, deterrence-based policies that are rooted in xenophobia, racism, and a false mindset of scarcity, which have already practically slammed the door on all those seeking asylum, including:
- The Circumvention of Legal Pathways or “Asylum Ban” policy which brought us the CBPOne app. This policy continues to foster inequitable access to asylum along the border with migrants who cannot utilize the app summarily restricted from seeking asylum between ports of entry – an act that is perfectly legal under the law – and those that do use the app waiting 4-7 months for an appointment in dangerous conditions; and
- Revised USCIS policy guidance on internal relocation that instructs asylum officers to consider whether an asylum seeker could relocate to another part of the country they fled from at the very earliest stage of screening, allowing for quick deportation of potentially eligible asylum seekers who cannot successfully defend themselves against complex legal concepts without an attorney and time to prepare; and
- A renewed emphasis on criminal prosecution for “unlawful entry” which prioritizes punishing immigrants seeking safety in the United States over their lawful right to claim asylum; and
- The proposed rule on asylum bars that, if implemented, that would add even more complex and unnecessary barriers to seeking asylum in the United States by instructing asylum officers, at their discretion, to apply certain bars to asylum and statutory withholding of removal at an asylum seeker’s very first screening
The impact on immigrant survivors of gender-based violence will be devastating and life-threatening and it is unconscionable. To take just one example from the Surviving Deterrence report that Tahirih and Oxfam published on the impact of deterrence-based immigration policies on survivors, a respondent the provides support to asylum seekers along the border shared:
“I saw an 18-year-old girl who…had experienced significant trauma…She was…sold to men in organized crime back in [her home country]. She made the journey [to the US/Mexico border] by herself with her two-year-old son…She was sexually assaulted several times during that journey… when you saw her, she was just like a shell of a person… And she ended up telling me, ‘You know, I don’t care. I would do it again…I mean, at least he would have a chance…”
This change will make it practically impossible for women and girls to ever get to Tahirih for help. Instead of a race to the bottom on immigration policy, what this country needs – and what survivors of gender-based violence and all immigrants deserve – is a comprehensive vision for immigration reform that creates an orderly and well-funded system which recognizes the humanity of all immigrants, respects the rights of asylum seekers, and realizes the many benefits that immigration brings.
