With or without anti-asylum proposals, Biden’s supplemental funding request would lead to more inhumanity and forced displacement at home and abroad
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 29, 2023
Contact: media@freedomforimmigrants.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amid record high immigration detention levels under the Biden administration and bipartisan efforts in the Senate to permanently gut the U.S. asylum system in exchange for the White House’s funding request for Israel and Ukraine, Freedom for Immigrants urges the Senate to safeguard critical asylum protections and reject more funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and foreign wars. According to recent reports, the deal in discussion would implement an asylum ban, create near impossible barriers to apply for asylum, and undermine humanitarian and other forms of parole.
The following statement is from Andrea Carcamo, policy director with Freedom for Immigrants.
“Our elected officials should recognize the cruel irony of attempting to fund more war while simultaneously making it harder — if not impossible — for those displaced by conflict to seek refuge at our door. We call on the Senate to reject the odious anti-asylum measures proposed in exchange for foreign military aid, and to deny Biden’s request to funnel billions of more dollars into the deadly ICE and CBP agencies.
“Funding wars abroad and escalating policies of mass migrant detention, deportations, asylum restrictions and border militarization is out of step with the majority of the people in this country who seek humane and responsible use of their tax dollars. The continued prioritization of arms over people contributes to the displacement of millions globally and the disproportionate dehumanization of Black, Brown and Indigenous people. These funding measures would fuel more harm in the form of routine family separation, human rights violations, and more death, whether it be at the hands of U.S.-backed militaries or ICE and CBP detention facilities.
“We demand that elected officials prioritize human lives. Budgets and spending proposals are moral documents that reflect our nation’s values. It’s high time our resources be put toward life-sustaining needs that allow all to live in dignity and thrive.”
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Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) is devoted to abolishing immigration detention, while ending the isolation of people currently suffering in this profit-driven system. FFI monitors the human rights abuses faced by immigrants detained by ICE through a national hotline and network of volunteer detention visitors, while promoting community-based services that welcome immigrants into the social fabric of the United States. Learn more: https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/