immigration reform – Progressive Asian Network for Action (PANA)

SUBMIT COMMENTS BY MARCH 27 HERE:

https://immigrationjustice.quorum.us/campaign/44910/

The Biden administration is taking comments from the public about its plan to bring back an asylum ban – a new version of one of the most anti-asylum seeker policies of the Trump era.

Please use our form to submit a comment telling them how this policy will hurt asylum seekers. To make sure your comment is counted and considered, please edit our pre-drafted suggestion to make it unique. Anyone regardless of immigration status may submit a comment, but comments must be submitted in English. Please note that comments submitted through this form will be placed into the public record.

While the administration has attempted to distinguish its asylum ban from Trump’s policies, it still has the same effect: denying asylum seekers the protection they need in the United States. The rule they are proposing would ban many refugees from asylum protection in the United States based on their manner of entry into the United States and transit through other countries.

This asylum ban, like Trump’s, will separate families and lead to the return of asylum seekers to harm and possible death. It will disproportionately harm Black, Brown, and Indigenous asylum seekers requesting safety at the U.S. southern border – who often cannot afford or access a visa to arrive in the U.S. by plane and instead trek across multiple countries to arrive at the border. While the Trump asylum ban was in effect, immigration court asylum denial rates for these groups greatly increased. Indigenous women and girls, many of whom will likely be barred by the rule, are at heightened risk for sex and human trafficking, extortion, and violence due to the continued erasure of their Indigenous identities, language exclusion, and ongoing discrimination they face throughout their journeys.

Our U.S. laws and treaties protect asylum seekers and prohibit their return to persecution and torture. Our laws also explicitly guard an asylum seeker’s right to seek protection regardless of how they arrive in the United States. The rule would unlawfully deny protection to asylum seekers and require them to seek asylum in countries that do not have functional asylum systems and where they may still be in harm’s way.

The administration is asking the public what we think about this rule and will consider our comments before issuing the final version. Please add your voice to tell them how this rule will harm asylum seekers.

The government is required to review and respond to comments in writing in the Federal Register. For example, this rule published in September contains nearly 100 pages of the government’s anonymized summarizations and responses to comments submitted by the public, including descriptions of where they made changes to the rule in response to public comments. To make sure the government counts and considers your comment, please edit our pre-drafted suggestion to make it unique – duplicate comments will otherwise be lumped together and responded to as one.

Please add your comment to tell them how this rule will harm asylum seekers before the comment period closes on March 27.

The organizations sponsoring this campaign will not be adding email addresses submitted through the form to any mailing lists.

PANA work-in-progress framework for approaching immigration reform work

March 10, 2019 (v.1f)

• A fair pathway to citizenship and full integration for immigrants, trafficked victims, adoptees, asylum seekers, and refugees while offering them a protected status against criminalization, detention and deportation while they plead their cases.

• We call for an end to re-criminalization and deportation proceedings against all reformed immigrant inmates and support full pardons including a fair pathway to citizenship.

• We demand the repeal of unjust policies that remove due process of for non-citizens.

• We demand reduction of visa backlogs, removal of national origin quotas, and granting a speedy process for family reunification, and increased funding for immigration courts.

• We call for the eradication of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), termination of the immigration-related components of CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection), the demilitarization of all U.S. borders.

• We oppose all policies that enforce, enable, allow, or otherwise support any systems or acts of child abduction, incarceration, or human trafficking.

• We oppose the businesses profiting from for-profit prisons and public financing of entities which engage in human trafficking activities.• We oppose U.S. military, political and economic intervention which brings death and destruction to sovereign nations, giving rise to, and exacerbating climate change and the human refugee crisis.

As Asians are a majority immigrant population in the United States, it only makes sense that an organization dedicated to fighting for full equality and justice for Asian people operate according to basic guidelines specific to the question of immigrant rights. We welcome any volunteers to help us further develop this position and continue to integrate the addressing of this issue in our work in various arenas including healthcare, education, language justice, etc.