Student Feature: Asylum in America
Image featured from Slate.com
This blog post was written by our student worker Zack Hendi.
Every year, millions of non-US citizens who are either in the states or at the border apply for entry into the country for asylum and protection from persecution. Applicants are met with a rigorous system that may call for multiple government agencies. Those of whom are granted asylum may receive certain benefits as well as the chance to apply to reside in the United States permanently while others who are not accepted are thrown at the mercy of their previous homelands.
These trends are not a new occurrence and have been going on for decades. President Donald Trump’s border policy has exacerbated the current situation. The National Immigrant Justice Center issued a statement claiming,
“The Trump administration expanded "expedited removal" away from the borders, allowing immigration agents to pick up any person anywhere in the country and deport them without judicial review unless the person can convince the immigration agent that they are a citizen, or that they have some lawful status in the United States. This expansion was enjoined by a federal judge in September 2019. The government proceeded to appeal. Concurrently, the government also challenged an asylum seeker's right to seek habeas corpus review, a last resort judicial remedy to challenge the lawfulness of his expedited removal proceedings.”
These conditions make it difficult for asylum seekers to have a stable life in America. The risk of deportation through United States facilities has proven successful in breaking up families and connections between people.
In addition, the Trump administration has also neglected those fleeing from gang and gender-based violence, often leaving them in shelters in the U.S.-Mexican border shelters in which fears of gang-recruitment, sexual abuse, and physical voilence often trouble the families residing there. The team at Rescue.org interviewed the individuals located at these locations to which the parents responded with their fears of their children being kidnapped or recruited into local gangs. These conditions only get worse with time as individuals fleeing the country in an attempt to escape gang violence are forced to return to the same dangerous locations, forcing them to either assimilate to the violence or face the consequences.
The current administration has also made malicious attempts to prevent specific groups from seeking asylum in the United States. As stated by an article on Rescue.org,
“The administration tried again in July 2019 by issuing a policy banning people from seeking asylum if they traveled through any other country and did not apply for asylum in that country first. With limited exceptions, this applies to all asylum seekers who have traveled through Mexico to reach the U.S.-Mexico border and not sought protection in Mexico or another country. This policy remains in effect today, though it too is making its way through the federal courts. In December 2019, the administration proposed greatly expanding the list of those barred from asylum eligibility on the basis of minor involvement in the criminal justice system that goes far beyond the “particularly serious crime” exceptions outlined by the 1951 Refugee Convention. This policy amounts to an unnecessary and overly-punitive overhaul of U.S. asylum protections”
These policies have created a great deal of pressure on individuals who are seeking a new future, or a getaway from the past, with no second chances. Hopefully as we approach the presidential election this November, the candidates will confront these issues.