John,
The New York Times reported this week that the Biden administration is considering reinstating the policy of detaining asylum-seeking families in prison-like camps along the southern border1 — a Trump-era policy that President Biden had condemned as inhumane and ended when he first took office.
This is alarming news — and it is part of a cascade of newly-proposed border restrictions that would prohibit thousands from applying for asylum in the U.S.2
We didn’t turn the page on the Trump administration just to return to the same cruel policies. Will you join us in calling on President Biden to reject any plan to revive migrant family detention? Sign our petition: Welcome asylum-seekers, close the detention camps, and expand pathways to citizenship.
Add your name »
In 2020, voters rejected Republicans’ anti-immigrant agenda and delivered the presidency to this administration on the promise of jobs and care for our communities and the reversal of Trump’s punitive border policies that ripped families apart, locked children in cages, turned away refugees, and sent asylum-seekers back into danger.
And last year, when Republican candidates plowed money into vicious anti-immigrant ads to turn out voters in the midterm elections, they were roundly rejected, again.
We rejected family detention under the Trump administration — and we need to reject it under a Democratic administration too.
Resurrecting Trump-era policies and creating barriers to asylum would be an attack on the legal and human right of those fleeing violence and persecution to seek safety.
It would put vulnerable people — doing what any of us would do if faced with similar circumstances — in harm’s way. And it would be a betrayal of Biden’s campaign promise to restore dignity and humanity to our immigration system.
Regardless of political party, this policy is cruel and degrading — asylum seekers need safety, not incarceration. Sign on to our petition calling on President Biden to welcome asylum-seekers, close the detention camps, and expand pathways to citizenship.
Add your name »
In solidarity,
Working Families Party
Source:
1. U.S. Is Said to Consider Reinstating Detention of Migrant Families, New York Times, March 7, 2023.
2. Biden administration unveils broad asylum restrictions at U.S.-Mexico border, Reuters, February 22, 2023.
