Congress Must Reject Bill Destroying Asylum System, Costing Lives of LGBTQ Refugees

New York, NY (February 5, 2024) — Yesterday, after months of closed-door negotiations, the Senate released a funding bill that would implement dangerous and ineffective border policies, effectively destroying our asylum system and sending LGBTQ refugees back to places where they will be in grave danger.

In response, Bridget Crawford, Immigration Equality’s Director of Law & Policy issued the following statement:

“In a mad rush for unrelated military funding, Congress and the White House are trampling a core American value: offering safe haven to people fleeing torture and persecution. They are also trampling real human beings—LGBTQ asylum seekers who will be killed because of this law. It is sickening when political polls become more important than human death tolls.

“The bill proposes a bundle of radical changes to the immigration system, that would:

• Create a new expulsion authority, similar to the illegal Trump-era Title 42 policy. The new authority would arbitrarily slam the door on most asylum seekers before they are even able to ask for protection, sending LGBTQ and other vulnerable refugees back to places that they will be tortured and killed without any regard for the merits of their asylum claims.
  
• Make things worse at the border, not better. Under the bill, mass expulsions and unpredictable border closures would create chaos and incentivize organized crime. Vulnerable LGBTQ and other refugees who are turned away will be trapped in Mexico where they face high levels of kidnapping, sexual assault, torture and even death. 
  
• Make asylum largely inaccessible for the very few who are still able to ask for it by applying heightened standards through a new rushed asylum process. As a result, LGBTQ refugees who would normally win their cases will lose, but will no longer have access to judicial review in order to challenge these wrongful denials.
  
• Punish asylum LGBTQ and other refugees for seeking protection with imprisonment, while enriching private prison companies. LGBTQ immigrants have long faced mistreatment in immigration jails, including medical neglect, physical and sexual assault, homophobic and transphobic abuse, and prolonged solitary confinement. The bill proposes higher levels of funding for immigration detention than during the Trump administration.

“President Biden and the Members of Congress who support this bill are turning their backs LGBTQ and immigrant communities. This bill will not fix the immigration system or solve problems along the southern border. It will, however, result in the preventable persecution, torture, and death of thousands of LGBTQ refugees.”