Washington, DC – Recent reports have indicated the Biden administration is considering the implementation of a policy that would force migrant families who enter the U.S. without authorization to remain in Texas near the border. The Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) urges the Biden administration to abandon this policy, as it fails to welcome migrants and asylum seekers with dignity. Instead, they are placed in limbo, prevented from moving about freely and finding opportunities to care for their families. This proposed policy also does little to create a fair, humane, and orderly process for those seeking refuge, and instead places further burdens on those in need of protection.
The IIC is also concerned about a recent agreement that Mexico made with the U.S. to deport migrants from border cities. Instead of addressing the humanitarian concerns at the U.S.-Mexico border, this agreement places individuals and families back in the dangerous situation that they had fled from in their home countries. We urge the Biden administration to back away from this agreement and instead pursue coordinated humanitarian solutions that meet the needs of those waiting in northern Mexico.
“As an organization serving migrants on both sides of the border, we support policies and agreements that prioritize humanitarian response and dignified reception,” said Giulia McPherson, Vice President of Advocacy at Jesuit Refugee Service/USA. “We urge the Biden Administration to keep these priorities at the forefront when responding to an influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border, instead of placing migrants in limbo or back in harm’s way.”
“The act of seeking safety is one marked by courage, grief, fear, and resilient hope for the future. Families seeking safety should be met with compassion and support, but this proposed plan from the Biden administration to limit asylum-seeking families’ right to travel does just the opposite,” said Danilo Zak, Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy at Church World Service. “This policy meets vulnerable families who are seeking safety with punishment, cruelty, and neglect; trapping them in spaces where they may not be able to access the support or meaningful due process needed to pursue their claims for protection. We know that policies like this only create more harm. Rather than continue to participate in this self-defeating cycle, we urge the Biden administration to invest in a humane and just asylum system that upholds the dignity of those seeking safety. Anything less than that is woefully inadequate and unjust.”
“We Franciscans had hoped for more compassionate, just policies for migrants from the Biden administration,” said Sister Marie Lucey, Associate Director of Franciscan Action Network (FAN). “We are very concerned to learn that the Administration may force migrant families to remain in border communities as they take initial steps in their asylum cases. Families who have undertaken treacherous travel to seek safety in the United States deserve to be treated with respect and compassion, not with policies halting their right to travel. As people of faith, who believe in the dignity and rights of all people, we urge the Administration not to enact punitive measures for migrant families, but to invest more resources to create a humane and orderly asylum process.”
“US policy toward arriving migrants at our southern border should focus on humanitarian response, not deterrence or expedited removal. We should provide fair processing of asylum claims, as well as shelter and safety with dignity, and uphold the legal right to seek asylum,” said Pablo DeJesús, Executive Director of Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice. “The migrants arriving at our borders are escaping danger both natural and human-made. They are fleeing crushing threats that are systemic and global. The apparent deal between the United States and Mexico, as well as the reported policy that would force migrant families who enter the U.S. without authorization to remain in Texas near the border, perpetuate the deterrence approaches of the past, doubling down on strategies that violate the legal right to asylum. We should side with welcoming, in love. We should offer care and compassion. Deterrence policies increase the threats to some of the world’s most endangered people.”
“Recently Pope Francis said, ‘we cannot be resigned to seeing human beings treated as bargaining chips.’ Welcoming and caring for migrants, asylum seekers and refugees ‘is a duty of humanity,’ he added. The people coming to our borders are fleeing dangerous situations and threats to their lives,” said Sr. Susan Nchubiri, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. “It is our moral obligation to respond to their cries for protection and provide humane pathways to build a life with dignity for all.”
“People seeking safety in the United States should be able to travel to places where they have family and community to provide physical and emotional support while their asylum cases proceed,” said Susan Krehbiel, Associate for Migration Accompaniment Ministries at Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. “Seeking asylum in the United States is a human right, and asylum seekers deserve the same dignity and autonomy as every other human being. Both arbitrary relocations and detentions, therefore, create unnecessary barriers for asylum seekers to make their claims. Likewise, seeking to expel persons from Mexico before they can request asylum in the U.S. continues to undermine and erode the essential humanitarian protections for asylum seekers.”
“All levels of government are disappointing and failing in their duties to welcome migrants, but the Biden Administration has found a new level with its plan to force migrants who enter without authorization to remain in Texas near the border where towns are small and even the few cities have very limited resources to care for those crossing,” said Fran Eskin-Royer, Executive Director of the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. “The U.S. must do better to assist asylum seekers and migrants seeking safety and better lives among us.”
“Inflicting more pain on migrants and their families when conditions at home are unbearable won’t result in less migration, but in more abuses, deaths and disappearances at our U.S.-Mexico border,” said Dylan Corbett, Executive Director of the Hope Border Institute. “We need to understand that many cannot wait in unsafe conditions and that they will have to seek safety. It’s on us to decide whether we keep creating a maze where migrants are met with inhumanity, or we move toward a model of compassion that places people’s dignity and rights at the forefront, as borderlands communities are demonstrating.”
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of over 55 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants. Follow us on Twitter @interfaithimm
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