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Protecting Asylum and the Rule of Law
Posted on Nov 09 2018
November 9, 2018—Today the president issued an emergency proclamation that unabashedly violates the clear law of the land and our international human rights obligations, and betrays our national values and commitment to offer safe haven to those who come to the United States seeking to escape violence and persecution.
Asylum seekers are clearly protected under U.S. and international law. Any person may make claims for asylum whether or not they have entered through border checkpoints:
“Any 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…), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section…” 8 U.S.C. §1158(a)(1) [emphasis added]
In contravention of this clear language, today the president has ordered that anyone who enters the United States outside a designated border checkpoint will not be allowed to apply for asylum. In support of this illegal proclamation, he claims a national emergency, based on an increase in the number of Central American families and children seeking asylum. Absent from his rationale is the reality that the increase of Central American migrants is due to crisis levels of violence in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and to the utter failure of those governments to protect their most vulnerable citizens.
In desperation, mothers and fathers risk everything, including the lives of their children, as they walk more than a thousand grueling miles seeking safety. Along their route, people in Mexico have greeted these hungry and footsore refugees with food and bandages and compassion.
The response of the United States government has been to shut down access to legal border crossing points to all but a trickle of applicants, leaving others sleeping on sidewalks and bridges, waiting for a chance to apply. Further, this administration just a few months ago took the unprecedented step of intentionally separating children from their parents, some still remaining separated to this day, in a cynical attempt to discourage future migration. The former Attorney General has also unilaterally restricted asylum claims that will even be considered. Now the president recklessly and autocratically seeks to discard U.S. asylum law and the values embodied in the United States as a champion of human rights, defender of the democratic rule of law, and place of refuge for the persecuted. .
“This action cannot and will not be allowed to stand,” said John Keller, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. “The United States is a nation governed by laws, not by presidential prejudice or whim. The United States is an idea and promise of fairness and freedom, when we are at our best. We are strongest when our laws reflect the promise of equal access to the law, protection and opportunity for all that seek to call the United States home. We are strongest when we act out of compassion, justice and equality. Like the good people of Mexico, the everyday people of the United States and Minnesota, given the chance, have welcomed their immigrant brothers and sisters, bound up their wounds and helped heal their trauma, offered shelter and a seat in their churches, synagogues and mosques, and given thanks for the richness, strength and energy that they and their families bring to our country and state.
“The president’s latest illegal, anti-immigrant action will be challenged in court. We will not give up the values of the United States, the commitment to this nation of laws and checks and balances, and our obligation to respect human rights and human dignity.”