Immigration Equality Condemns Biden’s Proposed Barriers to Asylum
New York, NY (January 5th, 2023)— “Today, President Biden expressed his intentions to stop using the Title 42 expulsion policy to prevent people from entering the United States,” said Aaron C. Morris, Executive Director of Immigration Equality. “Astonishingly, at the same time, his administration expanded the policy to apply to additional nations.”
Title 42 is a health-related regulation that the Trump administration warped and misused to permanently close the southern border, a move that was both immoral and illegal. While President Biden announced a limited plan to parole certain migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua into the United States, his administration is also effectively ensuring that people from those same countries will be subject to expulsion under Title 42. In an equally disturbing announcement, the Department of Homeland Security simultaneously declared sweeping new obstacles for asylum seekers in forthcoming federal regulations. In fact, DHS explicitly indicated a proposed requirement that asylum seekers who travel to the U.S. through another nation apply for protection in that country before coming to the U.S., reviving a Trump-era attempt to restrict access to asylum. This is exactly the kind of policy that President Biden campaigned to overturn.
Every LGBTQ and HIV-positive refugee has the right to apply for asylum in the United States.
“Requiring our community to file for asylum in unsafe third countries will have mortal consequences for many of us,” continued Mr. Morris, “Immigration Equality strongly condemns any proposal by the Biden administration to restrict asylum to LGBTQ and HIV-positive refugees. The United States has a great capacity to protect and support asylum seekers and refugees, maybe more than any other nation. President Biden must stop creating barriers to protection, and instead do everything in his power to facilitate the safe relocation of all LGBTQ and HIV-positive people fleeing persecution.”