The administration is considering an overhaul of the asylum system at the U.S. southern border, which includes moving some asylum cases from the purview of the immigration courts within the Department of Justice to the Department of Homeland Security to speed up case processing. As the administration continues to respond to challenges at the border, Tahirih urges the government to center immigrant survivors’ due process rights and take steps to change several policies in place that will immediately help survivors of violence, while improving case processing.
“As a first step, we call on the administration to end the rampant overuse of expedited removal—a discretionary option that has become the default, causing the inhumane, prolonged, and costly detention of immigrants and woefully backlogged courts,” said Archi Pyati, Tahirih Chief of Policy and Communications. “Interviews should be in the hands of asylum officers who are specially trained to work with survivors experiencing trauma. We urge the administration to consider trauma-informed solutions and center the wellbeing of survivors of gender-based violence approaching our border. Survivors have a legal right to seek safety.”
Archi Pyati is available for comment on this topic. Please contact [email protected] to arrange an interview.
