by Melanie Nathan, Feb 04, 2024.
After weeks of back-door negotiation, a group of lawmakers, backed by President Biden, released legislation bundling one-time aid for foreign wars with anti-immigrant provisions that would gut the asylum system and create longstanding harm across border communities.
In response to a White House supplemental funding request, U.S. senators have released text of a proposed funding bill designed to implement extreme anti-asylum and detention policies that would fail to effectively address migration challenges at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In short, the bill would: violate the Refugee Convention by closing the border to people seeking safety after a certain number of people have already arrived; dramatically expand the use of immigration detention to punish those who try to seek asylum with incarceration; exacerbate humanitarian and operational challenges at the border; and make asylum largely un-obtainable for those who are permitted to request it at ports of entry.
African Human Rights Coalition responds:
We condemn in the strongest terms the proposed border deal that seeks to radically change our asylum laws. It is a political funding scheme that slaughters asylum rights for the most vulnerable people. Funding for humanitarian and defensive needs should not be linked to our asylum slaws and is political caving at its very worst. Biden is letting us down as he campaigned for better refugee and asylum protections. We need comprehensive immigration reform - not bandaids that exacerbate the very abuse we are now forced to consider.
Closing the border, gutting life vs death related rights, does nothing to change that which drives people to our borders, desperate for safety and freedom. LGBTQI+ people - noting those from African countries, who have made the impossible journey- will be hard hit with their vulnerabilities exacerbated rather than protected. Yet President Biden and the sponsoring Senators have caved to political meanderings that will cost lives. Although the bill contains a few silver linings, the cost negates them. This deal will ultimately subject LGBTQI+ people to long waits in unsafe venues with no resources."
LGBTQI+ people from African who travel to our Southern border have undertaken massive and death defying journey out of extreme desperation to flee horrific violence, as the pathways are few to none. There is literally nowhere to turn on the African continent and the journey to the U.S. should not be met with further hardship. As I recall metering systems have already been ruled illegal by ur courts....
The Senate must reject this deal... THE PROPOSED FUNDING BILL HERE
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