Why We Defend the Right to Asylum: A Brief History of a Lifesaving Protection
The United States holds a long-standing commitment to protect people fleeing persecution. In national legislation and international treaties, the U.S. has recognized that someone’s identity and moral convictions should not lead to persecution or death.
Today, the current administration is stripping away the protections that Americans have fought to protect. This puts our friends, family, and neighbors at risk of being sent back to a country where they could face persecution, torture, or death.
The history of the U.S. asylum system reminds us of our commitment to create a safe haven for people fleeing persecution. Even when our nation’s practices have not lived up to our written laws and treaties, everyday Americans have come together to protect people being targeted simply for who they are or what they believe.
The U.S. formally recognized its obligation to protect asylum seekers after a striking failure to do so during World War II. In 1939, the Roosevelt administration refused to allow the St. Louis ship to land on Florida’s coast. The ship carried nearly one thousand people fleeing Nazi persecution, mostly Jewish refugees. Many of the passengers had applied for visas to come to the U.S., but the government never granted them due to visa limits based on national origins. The U.S. denied the ship’s entry, and it was forced to return to Europe. Nearly a quarter of its passengers later died in the Holocaust.
The global community took action after World War II. The newly formed United Nations (UN) created the 1951 Refugee Convention, which developed into today’s asylum law as we know it. The U.S. signed onto the 1967 UN Refugee Protocol in 1968.
In 1980, the U.S. passed the Refugee Act, establishing a national framework to admit and resettle refugees in the United States. This Act resettled many refugees who fled persecution and ethnic cleansing in Southeast Asia.
However, Central Americans fleeing civil war during the 1980s did not find a sense of safety in the United States. In 1984, fewer than 3% of asylum cases for Salvadoran and Guatemalan asylum seekers were approved, compared to 60% for Iranians and 40% for Afghans fleeing the Soviet invasion. The political influence on the asylum system became clear: the Reagan administration supported the Salvadoran and Guatemalan governments and, therefore, refused to recognize the persecution their citizens faced.
In response, religious leaders formed the Sanctuary Movement, housing undocumented refugee families in their places of worship. Reverend John Fife described his work in the 1980s:
“We'd take in people that had torture marks on their body, and doctors would testify, 'Yeah, this guy's been tortured in El Salvador,' and the immigration judge would order him deported the next day."
