Arizona – This weekend, the Senate released text on a supplemental bill that includes harmful border policies and also has no chance to pass in the House. Arizona immigration advocates respond to the dangers and chaos that this bill would create, especially along the U.S./Mexico border.
Laura St. John, Legal Director for the Florence Project said, “This bill is a disgrace, plain and simple. It embraces extreme restrictions on asylum and policies that will cause immense human suffering at the border and for all seeking protection in the United States. Despite President Biden’s campaign promises to restore humanity to our immigration system, instead he is supporting and in fact encouraging policies that will lead to families being separated, will put the lives of people seeking protection in grave danger, and create the very conditions of confusion and instability in which cartels and transnational criminal organizations thrive.”
Joanna Williams, Executive Director of Kino Border Initiative added, “As an organization that assists and accompanies people fleeing violence and persecution and desperately seeking protection in the U.S., we are concerned that the restrictive proposals will cause further harm and create chaos at the border. Under the current bill, access to safety will become a game of chance and luck, which is inhumane and unfair and contradicts the values by which this great nation stands. The Senators who support this don’t have a practical, on the ground understanding of these issues and do not seem to realize that further tightening access to asylum at the border only benefits organized crime, who exploit the lack of legal pathways for their benefit and who profit from people’s desperation and need. As such, we oppose the current proposal unless it is significantly revised to be realigned with humanity and common sense”
Noah Schramm, Border Policy Strategist at ACLU of Arizona added, “This bill marks an astonishing retreat from our country’s fundamental commitment – long enshrined in domestic law and U.S. treaty obligations – to provide protection to people fleeing violence and persecution. The policies proposed are a complete evisceration of due process rights for people seeking asylum at the border. Congress must reject this bill.”
