While the administration claims to be protecting public health, its attacks on asylum seekers do anything but.
The Trump Administration is using the pretext of the coronavirus pandemic to intensify its years-long attack on asylum seekers.
Families requesting safe haven at the U.S. border often have no choice but to flee dangerous situations. They have the legal right to request protection in the United States, and should not be criminalised or separated from their children. Policies that turn them away expose them to dangers that have only been exacerbated by COVID-19.
Find out how the administration’s policies put asylum seekers—the majority of whom are people of colour—at increased risk and threaten to destroy the asylum system as we know it. Instead of protecting the public, the new proposals appear likely to worsen our unprecedented health crisis.
Border closures worsen the pandemic
Prior to the pandemic, the administration had taken steps to turn away families seeking safety. By placing an arbitrary daily limit on the number of asylum seekers who could be processed, and forcing asylum seekers to make their case from Mexico rather than inside the U.S., tens of thousands of people were being sent into harm’s way.
Then, in late March, the administration issued an order to immediately deny entry to non-citizens arriving at the border—with no opportunity to request sanctuary. In just six weeks, the Customs and Border Patrol denied entry to some 20,000 people, including 400 unaccompanied children. CBP considered these cases for an average of just 96 minutes each before deciding to turn back asylum seekers without any ability to bolster their case or provide more information. Although local communities in northern Mexico have made valiant efforts to welcome those turned away at the border, services are overwhelmed and asylum seekers often find themselves at risk of the same type of violence they fled.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to hold tens of thousands of asylum seekers and migrants in detention centres notoriously overcrowded, with track records of neglect for sanitation, medical care and personal safety. Despite warnings from public health experts that detention centres are likely to become hotbeds of the virus, ICE has refused requests to release individuals held in these dangerous conditions.
The administration can and should implement public health measures, including screenings carried out by public health officials, to mitigate risks to asylum seekers, and must increase access to health facilities at the border. But current policies merely compound the danger both at home and abroad.
Asylum seekers denied a fair hearing
Seeking asylum in the U.S. has never been easy and Trump Administration policies have made it close to impossible. In June, the administration went one step further by proposing new regulations that would effectively end the asylum system as we know it—not just during the pandemic but for years to come—and deny asylum seekers any chance at a fair hearing.
Under the administration’s proposal, people seeking safety would face the nearly impossible task of putting together a comprehensive case for asylum at the first stage of the process. After a long, arduous journey, they would be expected to present details around the condition of their country in legal terms, documentary evidence such as police reports, expert testimony further explaining the conditions they suffered, and carefully developed legal arguments—all while in detention and likely without legal representation. Those who arrive without a full understanding of asylum law—a high bar to clear—would risk being permanently barred from seeking protection in the U.S.
Women and LGBTQ+ people left out in the cold
Those able to make a case for asylum would find the qualifications narrowed. The Trump Administration wants to prohibit many claims based on gender-based harm. Domestic violence victims, people persecuted for their gender identity or sexual orientation, and feminist and LGBTQ+ advocates would find themselves barred from asylum.
“In Honduras, transgender people are persecuted and discriminated against,” says Lincy Sopall, a transgender woman who fled Honduras and was granted asylum in the U.S. in 2018. “It is not a place where you feel you can live safely. Nobody considers you a human being. Nobody thinks you have feelings. Your own country closes its doors to you.”
The new rule also allows for the blanket denial of claims made by victims of gang violence, a change that targets Central American asylum seekers whose countries suffer from murder rates akin to areas of war and conflict.
Despite these consequences, the administration’s rule changes continue to move forward after an insufficient and rushed 30-day public comment period.
A vague “public health” rule punishes health care workers
Imagine you’re a nurse risking your life treating patients for COVID-19. You also happen to be an asylum seeker with your case still pending. Suddenly, immigration agents arrest you and you are deported or expelled to the country you had fled. The reason: you’ve possibly “come in contact” with the coronavirus in the U.S.
Under yet another administration proposal issued in July, asylum seekers can be disqualified if they come from or travel through a country where a coronavirus outbreak is “prevalent or epidemic,” or if they “come in contact” with the virus - even if they are not infected or if they have a legitimate claim to asylum. While it’s unclear how the U.S. government would determine which asylum seekers fall into these categories, the proposal would apply to asylum seekers already in the U.S. That means that the country could deport not only essential workers like nurses, but also doctors, hospital staff, and others who risk their lives responding to the pandemic. Asylum seekers who contract COVID-19 while in ICE detention centres could also be denied safety.
Alarmingly, the changes would allow the administration to extend this ban to asylum seekers and migrants with other diseases, including treatable conditions.
SOURCE: International Rescue Committe
