News

Minneapolis, MN (December 8,2023)--The Advocates for Human Rights condemns efforts by the Biden Administration and some in Congress that indicate willingness to abandon migrant rights in exchange for deals on unrelated foreign aid. These proposals would eviscerate protections for people fleeing torture while violating due process laws, and generating vulnerability to trafficking and other forms of exploitation. The Advocates and others have continually called for Congress to cease efforts that trade the rights of one group in favor of those of others or for political ends, and we do so again today.   

"Human rights are not chips to be bartered for political ends; they are fundamental guarantees to human dignity that must not be traded away," said Michele Garnett McKenzie, Deputy Director of The Advocates for Human Rights. "Efforts to erode our asylum system cause serious human harms while failing to provide real immigration reform." 

According to reports the Biden Administration has indicated willingness to trade away asylum protections by raising the credible fear standard that individuals must show to even get an asylum hearing; expanding rushed and violative "expedited removal" hearings; and codifying the illegal third country transit ban. Credible fear interviews and expedited removal hearings come when people are at their most vulnerable, having just escaped persecution and harm, and do not include sufficient due process and human rights protections, such as language support and guaranteed attorneys. As multiple courts have concluded, more over, barring asylum for people who have had to transit through another country to seek safety in the U.S. violates our international legal protections.

"Closing avenues to safely seek asylum will not stop people from seeking safety. People move, and the United States must ensure our laws provide safe, orderly, and fair pathways to migration," continued Garnett McKenzie. "The Biden Administration made promises to return the U.S. as a leader in protecting migrant rights. His reported willingness to trade harmful cuts to asylum for foreign aid at a time when asylum protections are needed more than ever is a cruelly ironic betrayal of those promises."

The Advocates calls on the Biden Administration to hold strong to its commitment to human rights, and for our leaders in Congress to do the same. If Congress and the Biden Administration truly wish to create immigration reform and support human rights worldwide, violating migrant rights at home is not the right path.

###

Media Contact: Michele Garnett McKenzie, mmckenzie@advrights.org