Disagreement With the President’s Executive Action on Asylum

Closing the U.S.-Mexico is not a faithful solution.

Washington, D.C. — Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice is profoundly disappointed in President Biden for issuing an executive action that functionally closes the U.S.-Mexico border to asylees, people fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries. We would prefer to see the administration helping to deal with problems at the border fairly and compassionately. UUSJ believes a faithful response would develop policies and procedures that permit the U.S. to equitably and efficiently process people seeking asylum instead of severely limiting access.

The order invokes Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, following the path and leveraging the logic established with the Muslim Ban in 2017. Which UUSJ opposed.

For the next 14 days, this executive action will temporarily suspend entry to people seeking asylum across the southern border of the U.S. It will automatically deport people who enter the U.S. at any location between and beyond official border checkpoints, without processing their asylum claims. There will be very few humanitarian exceptions to this rule, and credible fear screenings would be limited to extremely specific cases. After the initial 14 day period, this restriction would be re-triggered any time apprehensions between ports of entry reach a seven-day average of 2,500 people.

Service providers along the southern border, and process experts across the nation, project this would essentially make the U.S.-Mexico border closure indefinite and permanent. The executive action would allow the U.S. to expedite the removal of migrants without enabling them to make their asylum case easily and in a welcoming fashion. It is a betrayal of our best American values, and it will return many migrants to the dangerous situations from which they were fleeing. Asylum seekers deserve better treatment by our government, and our society should act to provide welcome.

UUSJ calls upon the Biden administration to develop policies and procedures that permit the U.S. to fairly and efficiently process people seeking asylum instead of severely limiting access to asylum at the border. These policies and procedures should include:

• Increasing staffing at ports of entry along the border
• Funding for more asylum officers, asylum court judges, translators, and other staff
• The use of community-based case management, rather than detention for migrants who pose no threat to public safety
• Shortening the waiting time for work permits
• Creating a robust partnership between federal, state, and local agencies—including nonprofits—to receive and settle people seeking asylum

As Unitarian Universalists, and people inspired by Unitarian Universalist values, we believe that our principles call us to cherish “the inherent worth and dignity of every person;” to hold “justice, equity and compassion in human relations;” and to pursue “the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all,” which applies in this circumstance.  Closing the U.S.-Mexico is not a faithful solution.

We think a fair and efficient immigration system would allow the U.S. to help more asylum seekers, grow our economy, and uphold our best American values.

Pablo DeJesús, Executive Director of Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice, stated: “President Biden’s executive order is another disappointing step back from our decades-long tradition of providing asylum to people fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries.

“Seeking asylum is a right enshrined in U.S. and international law and should not be limited based on the number of immigrants reaching the border in a specific period. Instead, Unitarian Universalists call on the Biden administration to expand the capability of the U.S. to welcome people truly in need of asylum.

“As a man of faith, we ask the President to Side With Love. We ask him to turn away from policies of indifference. We pray for his heart to crack open in compassion and his mind to heed the plight of the less fortunate, especially those fleeing violence and persecution. We urge him to place welcome at the center of our treatment of immigrants and asylees.”

(See here for UUSJ’s immigration priorities.)

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Established in 1999, Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice is a network of Unitarian Universalist individuals and congregations that lifts up the light of reason, the warmth of community, and the flame of hope to advance equitable national policies and actions aligned with UU values through witness, education, and advocacy. We envision a just, compassionate, and sustainable world community. Follow us on Twitter @UUSJ