Letter
Published on November 22, 2022
November 22, 2022
Hon. Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States
Dear President Biden:
With a federal court striking down the use of Title 42 to summarily expel migrants, the undersigned immigration, civil rights, and human rights leaders urge your administration to seize this opportunity to fulfill its promise to build a humane immigration system and comply with U.S. asylum laws. We implore you to strongly reject any congressional efforts to extend or codify Title 42 or otherwise dismantle our asylum system.
The right to seek asylum is enshrined in domestic and international law. Four decades ago, the U.S. Senate unanimously codified the protections of the Refugee Convention into federal law. Title 42 is a Trump-era policy that has weaponized public health to circumvent domestic and international refugee law by rapidly expelling individuals more than 2.4 million times to Mexico or their countries of origin without the opportunity to seek protection.
This expulsion policy was a racist continuation of efforts to dismantle the U.S. asylum system and has disproportionately harmed Black, Brown, and Indigenous asylum seekers. Human rights advocates have documented more than 10,000 violent attacks – including kidnappings, serious assaults, and deaths – against individuals who were expelled to or blocked in Mexico due to Title 42 since the beginning of the Biden administration.
In his ruling last week, a federal judge said the Centers for Disease Control “failed to consider the harm the policy would inflict on impacted individuals.”Title 42 has been an egregiously harmful policy that endangered the lives of asylum seekers and migrants. However, we also urge DHS not to replace Title 42 with other punitive, ineffective policies that cause similar harm.
We are especially disturbed by DHS’s announcement as part of the Venezuela parole program on October 19th that the agency plans to engage the Government of Mexico “…to effectuate Title 8 removals of individuals subject to expedited removal who cannot be returned to Venezuela or elsewhere…” once Title 42 is no longer in place.
This would be an unprecedented third-country expansion of the inherently flawed expedited removal process, which sacrifices refugee protection and results in serious due process and civil liberties violations that increase the likelihood that migrants are erroneously denied an opportunity to apply for asylum and deported to persecution and torture.
Additionally, the end of Title 42 must not be accompanied by an expansion in the use of immigration detention, which has been shown to be retraumatizing to those coming to our country in search of safety as well as unnecessary and costly.
The ending of Title 42 on December 21st provides your administration a critical opportunity to restore the right to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, including at ports of entry, and finally move away from deterrent policies that are inhumane, ineffective, and inequitable.
We urge you to uphold the United States’ commitment to provide a haven for those seeking refuge. Faith- based organizations, legal and social services providers, and elected officials stand ready to welcome people seeking safety in a fair, orderly, and dignified manner.
Sincerely,
