FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@freedomforimmigrants.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ahead of the anticipated end of the Title 42 policy tomorrow and in response to the Biden administration’s newly announced immigration measures, Andrea Carcamo, policy director of Freedom for Immigrants, released the following statement.
“The end of Title 42 provides an opportunity for President Biden to turn the page and do right by those who have been denied safety and left hung out to dry for far too long. Instead, the administration is shamelessly doubling down on hardline policies that carry on a tried-and-failed deterrence approach in place of a humane system that offers life-saving protections to those fleeing persecution.
“While many of the administration’s newly revealed plans lack detail, their intent is abundantly clear. Biden is moving full steam ahead down a path of criminalizing migrants and externalizing the U.S. border thousands of miles away as part of the government’s broader dereliction of duty in building a functioning and humane asylum system here at home.
“The inhumane deterrence-based policies Biden is pursuing include resurrecting a version of Trump’s unlawful ‘transit ban,’ circumventing due process in asylum screenings, and ramping up punitive actions such as criminal prosecutions, deportations and detention. Those fleeing life-and-death situations should be met with dignity and the ability to exercise their right to protection — not with rapid expulsions, abusive detention and dehumanizing surveillance technology.
“Furthermore, the administration’s plans to create so-called ‘legal pathways’ to asylum do not contend with the realities of the obstacles faced by people fleeing danger. Predictably, Black and Indigenous migrants will continue to be disproportionately denied access to these narrowed and inequitable avenues to asylum.
“The Biden administration must abandon its plans to further criminalize the act of migrating and seeking safety. Rather than legitimizing the hard right’s racist demonization of migrants, the Biden administration should expand, not dismantle, the asylum system without increasing its reliance on detention and other dehumanizing measures.”
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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.