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New Asylum Bars Contravene U.S. Legal and Moral Commitments
Posted on May 11 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Veena Iyer, Executive Director, Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
veena.iyer@ilcm.org (651) 641-1011
New Asylum Bars Contravene U.S. Legal and Moral Commitments
May 11, 2023—The Title 42 immigration ban, which expires at midnight tonight, has been used to deny asylum seekers their right to apply for safe haven in the United States. Title 42 ends tonight, but new barriers have been erected to seeking asylum in contravention of international asylum law and our moral commitment to safe haven for those fleeing persecution.
“The end of Title 42 presented an opportunity to make our asylum processes more workable and compassionate,” said Veena Iyer, Executive Director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. “Instead, more barriers have been erected, and due process protections reduced.”
The new regulation reinstates Trump’s transit ban on asylum seekers, barring any who have traveled through a third country before arriving in the United States. An agreement with Mexico expands expedited expulsions to Mexico to include Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians, and Venezuelans, as well as migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Such bars and expulsions contravene U.S. asylum law, which states that “[a]ny alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum[.]” [8 USC 1158(a)(1)]
“The ability to seek asylum should not be conditioned on whether the asylum seeker walks or flies, on whether they are wealthy and well-connected or poor and friendless,” said Iyer.