On Thursday, the bicameral Refugee Protection Act (RPA) was introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). At a time when America’s commitment to being a safe-haven for refugees and asylum-seekers is in serious doubt, this legislation provides a map to how we reestablish and improve...
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Yesterday, Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed reported on internal Trump administration documents underscoring the sheer cruelty and chaos inherent to the Trump administration’s plan to send asylum seekers from El Salvador and Honduras to Guatemala. The piece, “The Trump Administration Will Deport People Seeking Asylum In The US To Guatemala...
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Growing Pushback Against Trump’s Policies to Block Asylum The Trump administration’s asylum and border policies, including Remain in Mexico or MPP and the so-called “safe third country” agreements with El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, are cruel and chaotic. The growing consequences of the human rights crisis Trump and Stephen...
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Civil Servants Deserve High Praise for Standing up for American Values “It only took Doug Stephens two days to decide: He wasn’t going to implement President Trump’s latest policy to restrict immigration, known as Remain in Mexico. The asylum officer wouldn’t interview any more asylum seekers only to send...
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Narea: “The US asylum system has almost become unrecognizable.” In a detailed explainer, Nicole Narea from Vox breaks down the demise of the U.S. asylum system under Trump and the Republicans. A country that once opened its arms to immigrants seeking refuge and fleeing persecution, has now shut its...
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Yesterday, CBP acting commissioner Mark Morgan delivered a news conference in El Paso to unveil — and spin — FY 2019 border statistics. Morgan touted the supposed “successes” of the Trump administration at the border, noted that the ongoing “crisis” continues, and used those two assertions to push for...
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The Trump administration is ending asylum by administrative fiat, circumventing Congress to change settled law that has been a cornerstone of America’s welcoming tradition since the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980 — emanating from a post-World War II commitment to “never again” allow the vulnerable to be...
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Dara Lind, writing for ProPublica, reveals the latest development in the Trump administration’s inhumane and xenophobic policies: Asylum-seekers, forced to return to Mexico to await their hearings under the administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, may now be ineligible for asylum because of their stint in Mexico. As Lind explains,...
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Stories Expose the Cruel Treatment of Those Seeking Refuge In America The Trump administration and the Republican party claim their border strategy is a success. The excellent reporting excerpted below – by John Stanton, Julian Aguilar, Acacia Coronado, Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Hamed Aleaziz and Adolfo Flores – exposes the human...
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In hard-hitting pieces for USA Today and TIME Magazine, refugee experts Rev. Sharon Stanley-Rea and Barbara Strack highlight the ways in which the Trump administration’s efforts to end refugee resettlement are a retreat from American values. Strack, who recently retired after a long career at USCIS, is one of...
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