An asylum regulation announced by the administration of United States President Joe Biden yesterday is flat-out contrary to both US and international law and is likely to bring immeasurable harm to people seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border.
The regulation, effective immediately, extends from 7 to 28 the number of days in which the average amount of daily immigration enforcement encounters at the US border must fall below 1,500 in order to lift a suspension of asylum processing at the border, which President Biden had first announced on June 5. The Biden administration said it issued the extension to ensure “that the drop in encounters is a sustained decrease and not the result of a short-term change.”
These measures follow a May 2023 regulation that also violated rights by generally blocking people from applying for asylum in the United States if they crossed between US ports of entry or did not seek asylum in a country of transit. These measures went into effect despite US law explicitly stating that the right to seek asylum applies to any person “physically present in the United States … whether or not at a designated port of arrival … irrespective of such alien’s status.”
The idea that the right to seek asylum should be suspended because too many people are seeking asylum or because some asylum seekers might be unable to wait in line, flouts centuries-old principles of refugee protection and the reality of conflict and persecution. Refugee flows from the exodus from Egypt described in the Bible to the modern flight of millions that followed Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine show that when lives are in danger, there is no place for turnstiles. Coming on the heels of World War II and the Holocaust, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declared the right of any person “to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” This human right is not limited to those who ring the doorbell.
Particularly in the fevered political rhetoric of an election year, when anti-foreigner prejudices are whipped into a frenzy and politicians jockey for position in their toughness towards immigration, it is important not to lose sight of the principles that have traditionally made the United States a refuge for the persecuted. It should remain such a refuge for the many today who continue to entrust their lives to the decency and goodwill of the US government and its people.
