Greg Bulla via UNSPLASH
Promoting Vigilantism
On Friday, news broke that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency plans to recruit an army of ‘citizens’ for a six-week “Citizens Academy” course on immigration detention, which will include training on how to detect and arrest undocumented immigrants, “firearms familiarization” and “defensive tactics.”
Why government plans to encourage fellow citizens to profile their neighbors and community members has not sounded raging alarms across the country seriously concerns us.
This plan is alarmingly dangerous, downright cruel, legally dubious and comes at a time when the nation is grappling with vigilantism, anti-immigrant, intolerant and racist rhetoric, all in the wake of a global pandemic and widespread calls for systemic racism to be addressed.
It also comes at a time when the President is lagging way behind in not only the polls, but also his base.
Exporting Covid
On the heels of that, The New York Times and The Marshall Project also documented what we, advocates and other journalists have been reporting for some time now: the US government is knowingly exporting Covid-19 around the world.
Exporting, deporting, take your pick. The point is both actions are shameful, amoral and part of a continuing assault on asylum in the US, which now comes with an additional assault on the universal right to health.
We previously wrote about the horrid situations asylum-seekers face in US detention centers in our feature “Seeking Refuge is Not a Crime.” We shared the conditions in these jails, that rampantly spread the Coronavirus. The lack of testing, the lack of personal protective equipment, the enforced cleaning of virus-infected jails by detainees, the use of harsh chemicals and mysterious gasses that made some detainees ill, the failure to provide detainees access to health, detainees who died of Covid while in detention, and then knowingly deporting Covid-infected detainees to foreign countries.
Updated information on Friday revealed that pressure from the Trump Administration through threats of visa sanctions and cuts in humanitarian aid forced countries to open their borders to deportees despite the risk of virus spread.
The latest flight tracking shows over 200 deportations have taken place between March 13 through June, where hundreds of detainees were returned to 11 countries, even though all 11 countries had placed border restrictions.
“Exporting, deporting, take your pick. The point is both actions are shameful, amoral, and part of a continuing assault on asylum in the US, which now comes with an additional assault on the universal right to health. ”
ICE said it deported almost 40,000 immigrants from 138 countries since March.
Central America is by far the worst affected region, with over 60 percent of asylum- seekers deported to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. We have written repeatedly about the persecution and crime conditions in Central America that are propelling so many to seek refuge at the US border, but also the years of drought, failed crops and coffee-rust crisis, fueled by climate change and climate variability that now has large sections of the Dry Corridor throughout this region deeply food insecure.
Donald Trump praised the presidents of El Salvador and Honduras for their cooperation and promised ventilators after they opened their borders to receive the deportees. Guatemala, which was less compliant initially, temporarily blocked flights, but three days after the threat of visa sanctions, flights resumed.
Guatemala reports 186 deportees have tested positive for Covid-19 so far. El Salvador and Honduras have not confirmed cases.
ICE reports 3,000 detainees in its centers are Covid-positive but admits testing is still limited.
Lest we forget, ICE also blatantly and indiscriminately transfers detainees throughout the United States, knowingly spreading the virus from state to state amongst detainees, guards, flight crews, ICE officials and anyone involved in this whole sordid process.
Surely even anti-immigration Americans should be appalled at this willful threat to its national public health?
The End of US Asylum As We Know It
We also previously reported on the threat of new asylum restrictions that would all but secure and end to seeking meaningful asylum in the United States. Well those new restrictions were shared publicly on June 15, and opened for public comment, to be completed by July 15.
The proposed regulations further curtail asylum protections in some very catastrophic ways:
Screening interviews to assess credible fear, already well established under longstanding US and international legal guidelines, will now have an increased evidentiary threshold and modified to allow easier and quicker deportations.
Immigration judges will be empowered to deny cases without a hearing - as in NO DUE PROCESS - based on new definitions of persecution, torture, the five refugee grounds and nexus, in contravention to long-established legal statutes, case law, the 1951 Refugee Convention, customary law and all established international obligations.
In particular, changes to the refugee ground ‘particular social group’ would eliminate seeking asylum on the basis of gender, effectively shutting the door to LGBTQ+ individuals and women and girls fleeing gender-based violence such as rape, sexual assault and domestic violence.
Cases can be denied for non-payment of taxes, late payment of taxes, failure to report income, residence in the US unlawfully for more than one year or if one has traveled through another country en route to the United States.
The government will now be allowed to violate the confidentiality protections of asylum- seekers at their will.
The proposed regulations dramatically redefine obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture, opening the door to violate the principle of non-refoulement, which is the absolute obligation to not return refugees or asylum-seekers to countries of origin where they have reason to fear persecution and are certain to face harm such as torture, imprisonment or death.
What’s At Stake
Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing 138 Salvadorans who were killed after being deported from the United States and a further 70 people who were beaten, sexually assaulted, tortured, extorted or imprisoned upon deportation to El Salvador. These are human beings who died, who were murdered, suffered unspeakable violence and human rights violations because of the willful failure to uphold asylum protections.
Climate Refugees knows the researchers of this report and have spoken to them extensively about the situations in the Central American countries that cause so many to seek protection at the US border. For the United States to suggest carte blanche that Central American asylum-seekers are not worthy of international protection is just flat-out wrong and flies in the face of troves of evidence to the contrary.
Unfathomably, things could now become even worse and we must state unequivocally that this is not okay. Voice your outrage and concerns knowing that you will be one amongst the thousands of other outraged citizens and advocates fighting against this proposal becoming law.
What You Can Do
The public comment period for these proposed regulations offers you some avenues to make your voice heard, but you must act fast!
Take action NOW to SAVE ASYLUM
Click here to submit a public comment and protect asylum-seekers.
If you prefer, you can also submit your comment with this template from the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Publicly comment BEFORE July 15, midnight EST.
Please personalize your comments before submission as the government gives more weight to each comment if it is unique.
The Trump Administration is required to review and respond to each comment, so the more personalized your comment, the more time it takes to respond, potentially delaying the new rules from going into effect and ultimately legitimately SAVING LIVES!
You can incorporate the information we’ve provided above, along with unique comments in your own words.
It’s important that you DO NOT copy and paste this text into the comment form. The government will only read UNIQUE comments.
Steps
Review the suggested text examples, you can also use information provided in this Feature.
Write your own unique comment.
Save a copy of your comment.
We’ve provided some suggested text to get you thinking but remember, please incorporate this into your own words:
I oppose the proposed changes to our asylum system and ask the Department of Homeland Security to withdraw this proposed rule. I have serious concerns with the US government fundamentally changing the current law and US asylum system. These proposed changes would fundamentally change the definitions of persecution, torture, the refugee grounds and especially the ground of membership in a particular social group, which will ultimately limit protections that people quite clearly need and are protected in well-established US and international law.
I have seen reporting from human rights organizations, news agencies, humanitarian agencies, global governments, UN agencies and others about the harmful and disastrous effects these new rules would have on vulnerable and oppressed people.
A vast majority of US asylum-seekers come from Central America and I am aware of how much crime, persecution, torture and other dangers they are fleeing and to deny already traumatized asylum-seekers protection is not only inhumane, it is also illegal.
People fleeing violence deserve protection, care and to be free from harm. They most certainly deserve and have a fundamental right and to be afforded a fair chance to seek asylum.
I believe in the sanctity of US constitutional rights to due process, including for immigrants and asylum-seekers and these new rules violate the US constitution.
This country was formed on the basic tenets of seeking refuge, and our laws and principles are meant to protect those beliefs. This proposal threatens countless lives with untold consequences but also our nation with a shameful legacy.
The UN Refugee Agency said the US has been a global leader of refugee protection, providing access to asylum within its borders, but these new restrictions would mean “many people fleeing persecution would be unable to request, or obtain, protection in the United States.”
This proposal threatens to destroy actual human beings, not numbers, and in the process, US standing for years to come.
Other
Describe who you are and why you care about this issue and the US asylum system.
If you have personal experience accessing the US asylum system or experience working with an asylum-seeker or other reasons, share those experiences.
This video "How You Can Help Protect Asylum" has plenty of information and may provide further prompts you can use in your comments.
Use New Sanctuary Coalition’s Social Media #SaveAsylum Toolkit
Share that YouTube video, share this Feature and urge your friends, family and community to submit a comment by July 15, midnight, EST
“Why government plans to encourage fellow citizens to profile their neighbors and community members has not sounded raging alarms across the country seriously concerns us. ”
Stop ICE’s “Citizens Academy”
Sign this Change.org petition to Stop ICE’s “Citizens Academy”, which will be delivered to ICE.
Take action against ICE’s “Citizens Academy” with the St. Louis Interfaith Community on Latin America.
Co-Opting Covid to Restrict Asylum
The Trump Administration is always proposing new rules to gut the US asylum system. The latest suggestion is to extend the temporary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines we reported on in June, whereby an arcane public health policy was co-opted to further an anti-immigration agenda that gives US Customs and Border Control Agents the power to turn away asylum-seekers at the border with no hearings whatsoever, essentially under the ruse of banning entry of people who may spread infectious disease in the US. Regardless of its presentation, the policy presents a total violation of the right to seek asylum under US and international law.
The new proposal is open for public comment before August 10.
Take Action Now
USCIS Comment for Proposed Rule for Security Bars and Processing
As with above, personalize your comments, here are some suggestions:
“Experts have robust public health recommendations and measures to safely manage asylum-seekers and children at the border during this global pandemic, and thus this policy is absolutely not needed.”
“Don’t politicize the global pandemic to further previous aims to end asylum permanently in the US.”
“I believe in the important responsibility of keeping Americans safe from this virus, but it is not immigrants that pose the threat or risk of spread of this virus. Rather, it is the continued failure to follow the recommendations of medical experts, which is spreading the virus and further contributing to the scapegoating of our obligations to uphold asylum protections.”
“The impact of this order does nothing to protect Americans from Covid and places adults, children and unaccompanied children in immediate danger of returning to the situations from which they fled.”
For more on this topic and detailed information on the situation faced in detention, deportation, insights into why people are fleeing and what you can do, check out our feature “Seeking Refuge is Not a Crime.”
Previous resources we shared in that feature are also helpful and are detailed here:
Detention:
Many of the US detention centers fall under the purview of municipal laws and there’s much you can do to lobby your local government to stop the practice and expansion of detention.
Detention Watch Network is a great place to start with their many campaigns.
RAICES Texas and RAICES Action Fund offer an excellent range of advocacy initiatives you can take from home, behind a laptop, in-person or whatever suits you.
Take action with RAICES to end immigration detention and release all immigrants at risk of Coronavirus.
United We Dream has a (MoveOn-supported) petition right now to demand ICE stop using hazardous chemicals in response to COVID-19. Sign the Petition NOW to ICE Acting Director Matthew Albence.
Support New Sanctuary Coalition in its numerous volunteer opportunities in legal, translation, accompaniment, communications and more in the fight against deportation.
Legal
Help the ACLU who are suing the Federal government at every turn for its illegal erosions against the right to seek asylum
Legislation
Support climate action and the passage of the Green New Deal by asking your local representatives to support the bill
Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts introduced unprecedented “climate refugee” legislation last year to create a new humanitarian program of assistance and resettlement for those displaced by climate change across borders and thus, outside the protection of international law.
Watch this space for updates on the bill and how you can help.
Financial
Donate to Climate Refugees where every dollar you give supports continued research, writing and analysis, field missions and robust advocacy from staff who work pro-bono. That’s how committed we are to this issue.
Follow Climate Refugees SPOTLIGHT: Climate Displacement in the News and PERSPECTIVES: Climate Displacement in the Field to learn more about these issues and more. Also on social media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook - follow links in the bar below.