Don’t allow the U.S. government to bargain away the internationally recognized right to seek asylum! In order to get a supplementary emergency funding bill passed to send military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, the Biden administration and some Democratic senators seem ready to cave to Republican demands for extreme changes to U.S. asylum policy.

It is important to understand that if a funding bill is passed and signed by the president, it will become a permanent part of U.S. law — overturning the right to asylum that has been written into U.S. and international law since the Holocaust. The changes that are being considered as bargaining chips include reverting to Trump-era policies (such as Title 42) that allowed Border Patrol to send asylum seekers back to life-threatening conditions in their country of origin, without an opportunity to make their case for asylum in front of a judge.

In addition, nationwide expedited removal is on the table, which could allow the government to quickly deport families who have made their lives in the U.S. for decades, as well as people who have fled dangerous conditions more recently.

Last week, immigration justice groups across the country contacted senators to make it clear that no one’s rights, including those of asylum seekers, should be used as bargaining chips. Senate Democrats responded favorably to hearing from their constituents and introduced a clean supplemental bill.

Unfortunately, President Joe Biden is now indicating his willingness to bargain with the internationally recognized right to seek asylum, and is putting pressure on Senate Democrats to agree to at least some of the Republican anti-immigrant demands to get a funding bill passed.

We are in the final week before the year-end break for Congress, so this is an urgent push. Please call your members of Congress and the White House today. Let them know that people’s rights, including the rights of asylum seekers, should never be bargained away. The U.S. must continue to follow international law by allowing those fleeing for their lives to have an opportunity to seek asylum in the U.S. and to have their cases heard in immigration courts.

Alice Levine

Member of Jewish Activists
for Immigration Justice of Western MA