FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 10, 2024
CONTACT: Madison Allman | press@acaciajustice.org
[WASHINGTON] – Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, issued the following statement in response to the one-year anniversary of the Biden administration initiating a new bar on asylum — commonly known as the “asylum ban” — and the recently published Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which would fast-track deportations of some people seeking asylum and deny them their due process rights:
“Nearly one year after the implementation of the unjust asylum ban, we are profoundly disappointed that the Biden administration continues to double down on harsh, enforcement-first policies that deny vulnerable people seeking asylum their rights to access fair asylum hearings. The Biden administration asylum ban denies people who are fleeing for their lives an opportunity to seek safety in the United States unless they meet onerous requirements that leave many waiting in limbo in dangerous conditions outside the U.S. or requires meeting a heightened standard if they enter without obtaining appointments available to only a few. The new proposed regulation further corrodes the rights of people seeking asylum by giving government officials the power to deport people at their preliminary screening based on unreviewed assessments of whether an individual applicant would fit into legally complex bars to eligibility.
“Without due process protections, review and oversight, this change could result in people being deported to unsafe circumstances and even returned to the hands of persecutors or torturers. The change could also disproportionately impact Black migrants and increase their chances of being returned to deadly conditions, especially because people nearly uniformly lack contact or assistance of counsel at this initial screening stage.
“We urge the Biden administration to rescind these dangerous changes to asylum processing and reject any further degradation of the rights of asylum seekers. Anti-immigrant so-called “deterrence” policies undermine our collective ideals and the treaty obligations we have committed to uphold. Instead, our leaders must work together to enact policies that welcome people seeking safety with compassion and dignity.”
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