John,

Last night, the Senate revealed the text and summary of the immigration provisions within its bipartisan emergency supplemental funding bill and while it makes some needed improvements, these benefits are far outweighed by its restrictions on asylum and significantly increased funding for detention of migrants.

The legislation does reaffirm the authority to grant humanitarian parole and increases funding for refugee resettlement and for more immigration judges and asylum officers. It also provides greater access to legal counsel to minors under age 13 and adults ruled mentally incompetent, and increases visas and work authorization in certain circumstances. These measures should be part of an approach that responds to root causes and maintains legal and moral obligations to assist desperate people.

But these improvements are dwarfed by provisions that could essentially shut down asylum for long periods, while permanently restricting the grounds for seeking asylum and speeding up deportations without due process. The U.S. immigration system needs to be overhauled and modernized, but raising the standard for establishing fear of persecution, limiting the days when asylum eligibility can be determined, and creating a border emergency authority that allows the President to shut down the border are not the solutions we need.

This bill would decimate the U.S. asylum system, rendering the system unfair and choking off access to protection for many. These enforcement-only policies do not work, as we saw with the previous administration when illegal border crossings increased by 300%.¹

The United States has the resources and the capacity to enact a more humane asylum process that protects people. Send a message to the Senate urging them to oppose provisions that recreate failed Trump era policies and instead work towards a more compassionate system that protects asylum seekers.

Any immigration policy that does not include a permanent legal pathway to citizenship for long-term residents, including DREAMers, or threatens the unity, health, and well-being of immigrant families―including 5 million children who have at least one undocumented parent―will not address the failures in current immigration law.²

The Coalition on Human Needs and our allies call on Congress and the White House to reject this punitive course of action and turn to the thoughtful reforms that fix the border crisis while treating migrants and asylum seekers with the compassion and dignity they deserve.

Join us in calling on the Senate to reject this draconian deal that will only exacerbate the crisis at the border.

Thank you for all you do,

Dominique Espinoza
Outreach and Engagement Specialist, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ The border wall and the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy “reduced illegal immigration by 90%.”
² Still at Risk: The Urgent Need to Address Immigration Enforcement’s Harms to Children