Dear John,
A new anti-asylum rule proposed by the Biden administration echoes one of the worst violations of U.S. asylum law attempted by the Trump administration. The rule attempts to bar asylum seekers who have passed through a third country from applying for asylum in the United States. This blatant violation of human rights and U.S. and international law cannot be allowed to stand.
The new regulation says that any asylum seekers coming through a third country will face a “rebuttable presumption” of ineligibility. In effect, this new rule would limit asylum to Mexicans, Canadians, people arriving in small boats, and those with the money and connections to obtain visas and airline tickets.
The “rebuttable presumption” requires asylum seekers to prove “imminent and extreme” threats to life or safety or a medical emergency. Without these exceptional circumstances, they will not even be allowed to apply for asylum. Asylum seekers, already exhausted by long overland journeys and traumatized by violence in their countries of origin and during these journeys, will find this a near-impossible challenge.
This ban is illegal, inhumane, and dangerous. It violates U.S. asylum law, which gives any person present in or arriving in the United States an absolute right to apply for asylum. U.S. asylum law says that time spent in a third country only bars people passing through a designated ‘safe third country’ or having ‘firmly resettled’ in a third country. Neither Mexico nor any Central American country is designated as a ‘safe third country’.
The government is required to review and respond to comments on the regulation in writing in the Federal Register. Click here to send a public comment before March 27. To make sure the government counts and considers your comment, please edit the pre-drafted suggestion to make it unique – duplicate comments will otherwise be lumped together and responded to as one.
In solidarity,
