Washington, D.C. – Today, President Biden announced one of the most restrictive border policies meant to severely limit individuals and families’ right to seek safety through the U.S. asylum system. The President’s Executive Order relies on the use of 212(f) and 215(a) authorities which allow the president to “suspend the entry” of people at his own discretion, circumventing long-standing asylum law. These authorities were the same used and failed under Stephen Miller’s racist “Muslim ban.”
Greisa Martinez Rosas, Executive Director at United We Dream Action, said:
“Coming on the heels of two other announcements that make it more difficult for migrants to seek safety in the U.S., President Biden’s executive order is a shameful rightward shift and betrayal of immigrant communities. Black, brown and immigrant youth know that we can be a country that allows immigrants old and new to move, stay, live, and thrive.
Time and again, the majority of Americans have declared their overwhelming support for humane, welcoming immigration solutions, showing clearly that efforts to mirror the MAGA agenda is a guaranteed losing strategy. President Biden is making a choice at this moment to deny families their safety, humanity and dignity. We demand that he use his executive power to prioritize people’s safety and deliver protections now.”
Bruna Sollod, Senior Political Director at United We Dream Action, said:
“As immigrants who lived through four years of Trump’s white supremacist attacks that tore families apart and ripped children from the arms of their parents, we will not go back. MAGA policies at the border and inside our country have failed all of us time and time again. The vast majority of people in this country unmistakably denounce the MAGA playbook. The American public has been clear: we must keep families together, and uphold our global obligations to ensure every human being’s right to seek safety and continue to live with their loved ones in the place they call home. President Biden has an opportunity to realign with his commitment to upholding everyone’s freedoms or risk continuing to lose ground among the American public.”