Press

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 19, 2021

CONTACT: Bilal Askaryar | press@welcomewithdignity.org

#WelcomeWithDignity and Partners Deliver 200,000+ Signatures Demanding Biden Restore Asylum

Washington — This week, the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign and partners delivered more than 200,000 signatures demanding President Biden take immediate action to restore the right to seek asylum by reversing Title 42 and stopping the reimplementation of ‘Remain in Mexico.’ Policies set by his predecessor. The delivery of petitions from groups such as Daily Kos, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), HIAS, and faith groups was the culmination of a week of action organized by the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign aimed at restoring the right of people fleeing danger to seek safety in the United States. During the week of action, constituents, advocates and experts met with dozens of congressional offices to raise their concerns over current policies and urge members of Congress to  pressure the Biden administration to restore asylum. The week of action ended with doctors and faith leaders standing in solidarity with asylum seekers outside the White House urging the President to end Trump-era policies and keep his campaign promise of more humane immigration policies. 

“Today, more than 200,000 people from across the country stood up to demand that President Biden stop expelling refugees at the border under the cruel and illegal Title 42 policy,” said Noah Gottschalk, Global Policy Lead at Oxfam America. “The Biden administration must no longer cave to the political pressure from a small fringe of anti-refugee xenophobes and instead must fulfill this country’s promise as a safe haven for all persecuted people. It’s time to listen to an overwhelming number of voices who support refugees and end Title 42 once and for all.”

“More than 200,000 people have joined us to say: the United States must uphold the fundamental human right to seek asylum,” said Melina Roche, #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign Manager. “This week experts,advocates and constituents  met with Congress and delivered petitions to the administration spelling out solutions on how the United States can restore our asylum system to once again be a beacon of hope for people seeking safety. It’s past time for President Biden to endracist policies promulgated by the Trump administration and uphold the dignity of people seeking asylum.”

“Migration is a human right, and Daily Kos urges Pres. Biden to reverse the racist, anti-immigrant Title 42 policy. Now more than ever, asylum seekers need protection and safety–their lives depend on it,” said Carolyn Fiddler, communications director for Daily Kos. “Expulsions are inhumane, and they become even more so during an ongoing pandemic. Ending Title 42 and Migrant Protection Protocols are crucial steps we can take to ensure that asylum seekers receive due process.”

“Using Title 42 to block the entry of refugees into the U.S. is an absolute abomination. It goes against what Americans have stood for throughout our nation’s history—creating a safe and prosperous future for people who escape persecution” said Aaron C. Morris, Executive Director, Immigration Equality. “The hard truth is that the policy is really about keeping vulnerable human beings out. People who are LGBTQ or living with HIV, Black and African migrants, are all at extreme risk in Mexico. Anti-LGBTQ and racist violence at the border is well-documented. Title 42 is not protecting America’s health; it’s putting immigrants and refugees in mortal peril.”

“For over a year and a half, HIAS and other Jewish voices have consistently and repeatedly called for the end of Title 42 expulsions,” said Rebecca Kirzner, Senior Director of Grassroots Campaigns at HIAS. “Title 42 is an abuse of our public health laws that puts people in danger and denies them their right to seek asylum. This petition represents thousands of people calling on the administration to stop this horrific policy, and the petition also represents thousands of people urging Congress to join our effort to restore asylum at the border. Policymakers must stop making excuses, uphold our American values, and end Title 42 expulsions.”

“The Biden administration promised to adopt a fairer and more humane approach to the asylum process at the southern border, said Jonathan Blazer, Director of Border Strategies at the ACLU. “But his continuation of Trump-era policies continues to place people who seek safety in grave danger.  It is past time to bring a complete end to policies — such as Title 42 and the Remain in Mexico program – that unlawfully prevent people seeking protection at the border from pursuing their asylum claims in the U.S.  The Biden administration can and must do better, by using tools at its disposal to safely screen people seeking asylum at the border, and by  investing in community-based services that offer critical support and welcome people with dignity.”

The Welcome with Dignity Campaign is composed of more than 90 national and regional organizations committed to transforming the way the United States receives and protects people forced to flee their homes to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly. To learn more and join our campaign visit: welcomewithdignity.org

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 29, 2021

CONTACT: Bilal Askaryar | press@welcomewithdignity.org | 646-899-9722

MPP Termination Memo is a Step Towards What Advocates and Experts Have Been Demanding

A Welcome but Insufficient First Step

Washington — Today, the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign welcomed the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new memo indicating its intention to terminate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) — a deadly policy, also known as “Remain In Mexico,” that flouted the United States’ obligations to people seeking protection under international asylum law. In the memo, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledges what #WelcomeWithDignity partners have long said. The cost on human life was “intolerable” and there are “inherent problems with the program that no amount of resources can sufficiently fix.” The termination memo comes just two weeks after advocates from the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign walked out of a virtual meeting with administration officials because they refused to be complicit in the implementation of MPP and demanded the administration immediately issue a memo terminating the policy. Shortly after issuing the memo, the administration asked the Fifth Circuit to vacate a flawed lower court ruling that had ordered the resumption of MPP.

“I joined a lawsuit challenging MPP because the policy caused me a lot of pain and denied me my right to ask for asylum,” said Gregory*, an asylum seeker subjected to MPP. “I’m glad to hear the government recognize the harm it caused so many like me. It wouldn’t be fair to block asylum seekers from entering the United States. Those of us who fled Central America were in danger in the border area where criminals and narcos prayed on migrants. This intimidation and crime made me very afraid and I hope the government makes sure nobody else has to suffer that again.”

*Name changed to protect anonymity

“The memo recognizes what we have been telling the President and the DHS Secretary, that there is no way to implement MPP in any safe or legal manner,” said Melina Roche, Campaign Manager.  “Putting people who are seeking safety in harm’s way is not what the U.S. government should be doing and does not conform with the U.S. or international law. The U.S. must reestablish a safe, transparent, accurate, and efficient asylum process and protect those who are seeking safety in our country. So if and when MPP is fully quashed – and that is not fully clear yet –  the Biden administration also has a great deal of work to do to end Title 42, reestablish the asylum system devastated by the previous president, and continue to implement their strategy to address immigration and asylum in a coherent and regional manner to make migration safe, legal and more orderly over time.” 

“Reimplementing MPP, while knowing that it does not truly bring solutions and puts people sent to Mexico under MPP at risk of crimes and limbo, is completely inhuman and senseless.” Said Estuardo Cifuentes, Client Services Manager, Project Corazon, Lawyers for Good Government. Cifuentes is currently in MPP and paroled into the US as an open case.

“This memorandum, while long overdue, is very welcome as it makes clear the devastating impact the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy has had on tens of thousands of men, women and children who were forced into precarious, life-threatening situations,” said Melissa Crow, senior supervising attorney with the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project. “The additional step of moving to vacate the injunction in Texas v. Biden is commendable. Now, the administration must work to fulfill their promise of a fair and humane asylum process by giving everyone affected by this policy a meaningful opportunity to present their claims for asylum or other relief.”

“This memo, which immigrant communities and advocates have demanded for months, is a welcomed step towards restoring asylum at the border and building a fair, humane, and orderly process,” said Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center. “However, what matters most is that policy changes like these translate into tangible relief and safety for asylum seekers. The administration must move swiftly to process endangered asylum seekers currently stranded in Mexico due to MPP,  undo hundreds of cases of unaccompanied children, and end Title42, in order to restore asylum at the border.”

“We are glad that the administration has finally heeded the calls of the immigrant rights community and is taking steps to end the MPP once and for all,” said Blaine Bookey, Legal Director at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). “There is no safe, fair, or legal way to reinstate a policy designed to deprive asylum seekers of their rights. We hope the administration’s acknowledgment of the devastating harms caused by MPP will be followed by concrete action to restore asylum processing at the southern border. Not one more person should be placed in MPP and expulsions under Title 42, which expose asylum seekers to the very same dangers, must end.”

The Welcome with Dignity Campaign is composed of more than 90 national and regional organizations committed to transforming the way the United States receives and protects people forced to flee their homes to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly. To learn more and join our campaign visit: welcomewithdignity.org

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 21, 2021

CONTACT: Bilal Askaryar | press@welcomewithdignity.org 

Asylum Advocates Keep Up Pressure After Walking Out on Biden Administration over MPP

“MPP is deadly and racist in intent and impact”

Washington — Earlier today, asylum advocates and legal service providers held a press briefing to decry the Biden administration’s decision to restart the Remain in Mexico program. A recording of the call is available here. 

A number of organizations discussed their participation in Saturday’s walkout during a meeting with administration officials, the letter sent to the Biden administration by 73 legal service providers, law school clinics, and law firms in response to the restart of this program, and urge the administration to do everything in its power to prevent a return to MPP. The letter was delivered to the President and Vice President, as well as Jake Sullivan of the National Security Council and Attorney General Merrick Garland Tuesday. 

“The IRC stands in solidarity with the tens of thousands of asylum-seekers who were subjected to MPP and with the organizations who have worked diligently to fight against this fatally broken and brutal policy,” Alex Miller, International Rescue Committee, Arizona said. “By restarting MPP, the Biden Administration is choosing to ignore the U.S.’s legal obligations not to return asylum-seekers to harm, aware that thousands of asylum-seekers subjected to the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy were kidnapped, raped, and even murdered. We are disappointed to see the administration move forward in implementing a policy that is fundamentally inhumane and strips asylum-seekers of their right to due process.”

“MPP is not a legal process and it is definitely not due process,” said Charlene D’Cruz, Project Corazon- Lawyers for Good Government. “There is no version of MPP that is fair, legal, just, or humane.  The only moral and legal option is to revoke it completely, along with a complete revocation of Title 42, thereby ensuring legal asylum processes at the US – Mexico border.”

“There is no such thing as a more humane version of a program that has directly led to such extreme pain and suffering, said Margaret Cargioli, Managing Attorney of Immigrant Defenders Law Center. Reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy will directly lead to the loss of human lives. Any version of this deadly policy is fundamentally unacceptable.” 

“Migrant Protection Protocols do not protect anyone, these protocols perpetrate torture, harm, and even death. It creates an industry of trafficking and extorsion that benefits from those in dire need. MPP kills from the inside out,” said Tania Guerrero of CLINIC’s Estamos Unidos Asylum Project. “Legal organizations are not the band-aid. We have gone above and beyond and have failed because the system is flawed and illegal. The U.S. Government has the choice to not reinstate MPP just like it has the choice to end Title 42. In its failure to terminate such practices, it sends a definitive message that others are simply not welcome. The Biden administration must stop this deadly course of action now. We, CLINIC, and I cannot and will not be complicit any longer.”

The Welcome with Dignity Campaign is composed of 90 national and regional organizations committed to transforming the way the United States receives and protects people forced to flee their homes to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly. To learn more and join our campaign visit: welcomewithdignity.org

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 16, 2021

CONTACT: press@welcomewithdignity.org 

Asylum Advocates Speak Out after Walking Out on Biden Administration

“We refuse to be complicit”

Washington — Earlier today, asylum advocates from the Southern Border and national allies walked out of a meeting with high-level Biden officials in protest of the government’s plans to reinstate the cruel and inhumane Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico’ program also known as MPP. Representatives from groups in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Black-led organizations read from a prepared statement and denied the administration’s assertions that they were compelled to reinstate MPP by court order. 

Since President Biden took office, human rights investigators have documented over 6,300 violent attacks on people expelled to Mexico because of Title 42,  a similar mass expulsion policy. And President Biden himself called MPP ‘dangerous and inhumane’ while on the campaign trail. 

“Black asylum seekers at the border are vulnerable to anti-Blackness from both sides of the border as BAJI’s report “There is a Target on Us” shows. They are disproportionately harmed by the Biden administration’s racist border policies,” said Nana Gyamfi, executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI). “MPP, Title 42, and even the metering system are inhumane and unlawful policies that mark Black asylum seekers for violence and death. President Biden should have terminated MPP long ago but instead has chosen to double down on violent Trump-era policies. BAJI is proud to have joined our partners in walking out of today’s fallacious meeting with the White House. We demand that this administration keeps its promise of racial equity.” 

“Today, we joined other border advocates in walking out of this meeting with the Biden administration after nearly a year of trying to engage productively with them to build back a fair, humane asylum system,” said Chelsea Sachau, a Border Action Team Attorney with the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. “This week’s announcement that the administration is moving forward to re-implement MPP, a policy that has put hundreds of thousands of people in harm’s way, was the final straw. We stand in solidarity with the people seeking asylum whose lives are on the line and refuse to be complicit in deterrence-based border policies that prioritize politics over human lives. We hope today’s action makes President Biden and his administration finally listen.”

“We stand alongside our brothers and sisters working along the border and stand against MPP and Title 42, said Ariana Saludares, Co-Founder and President of Colores United. “We have seen firsthand the results of these inhumane policies along our New Mexico borders. We look forward to the period where all in peril are able to seek the right to asylum afforded to them.”

“The Biden administration has had two months to issue a new memo to terminate Remain in Mexico. Their insistence that these things take time rings hollow in light of their swift action during the same period to send 73 flights full of Haitians including babies and pregnant women to danger or worse and makes clear where their priorities lie. Let me be clear: continuing MPP and Title 42 are deliberate policy choices to perpetuate programs that are rooted in racism.” Guerline Jozef, Haitian Bridge Alliance. 

“The right to seek asylum must be restored and the egregious and dangerous policies that deny this right must be rescinded.  We will continue to push back against this Administration until they do the right thing.  MPP and Title 42 must end now.”  Jessica Corley, Director of Asylum Program, Albuquerque FaithWorks Collaborative.

The full text of the statement ready by advocates during the meeting is available here. #WelcomeWithDignity’s statement on the administration’s inexcusable plan to resume MPP is available here. 

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Join the movement and sign our pledge to #WelcomeWithDignity.  

The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign is composed of more than 85 organizations committed to transforming the way the United States receives and protects people forced to flee their homes to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly. To learn more and join our campaign visit: welcomewithdignity.org

The #WelcomeWithDignity campaign is sharing this statement on behalf of our Border partners who participated in today’s protest.

Breaking: Border-Based Asylum Groups Walk Out of Meeting With Biden Officials

“It is not possible to make the inhumane, humane”

For Immediate Release: October 16, 2021

Background: During a virtual briefing this morning between Biden administration officials and Border advocates regarding the news that the Biden Administration will revive the cruel Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico’ border policy next month, Border advocates and national allies walked out of the meeting in protest. The Border groups on the call have been working with people seeking asylum for years at the Southern Border and made clear to the government that any form of MPP is untenable and cruel. 

“As border advocates, legal service providers, and witnesses to the horrific harms of deterrence-based asylum policy, we want to express our anger and disappointment with the Administration’s decision to break a promise and to restart MPP. There is no improved version of MPP. It is not possible to make the inhumane, humane, unfair, fair, or to breathe life into a deadly program. We have been clear with the Administration on this for months and strongly disagree that you are compelled to act this way by the court ruling. We respect you personally, your effort and commitment, and your individual values, but we have sadly reached a turning point.

We can no longer come into these conversations in good conscience when the Biden Administration continues to perpetuate illegal and inhumane Trump-era immigration policies, such as Title 42 and now MPP.  Advocates engaged with many of you during the Transition and beginning of the Administration. We even provided the Administration with a roadmap that included solutions and how to restore the asylum system. Yet, you continue to play politics with human lives; your policies are sending people to their death. 

We refuse to be complicit in deterrence-based border policies. We continue to witness first-hand people crushed under them, every day.  We cannot allow our efforts to help the victims of these policies to be used in any way to prolong them.

We will not engage with the Administration around conversations on how to make MPP a palatable form of inhumanity. We demand that you issue a new termination memo and develop a concrete plan that ends MPP and starts moving us toward a fair, just, and welcoming system. We as border advocates, legal service providers, and national allies will not engage further in this conversation until the Administration is ready to deliver on their day one campaign promise: do everything in your power to end MPP, issue a new termination memo and start moving us towards a system grounded in empathy, dignity, and respect. 

Representing all five border welcoming regions and the suffering migrants who should be at this table, we now ask all our partners and colleagues to stand in solidarity with those we serve by respectfully walking out of this meeting.”

During the reading of the statement, the more than 60 advocates changed their Zoom background to black squares with text that read “End MPP: Restore Asylum Now” and “Protect Black Immigrants.” 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 15, 2021

CONTACT: press@welcomewithdignity.org 

Biden Follows Stephen Miller and Trump’s Lead, Plans to Resume MPP Cruelty

Washington — The #WelcomeWithDignity campaign responded today to reports that the Biden administration will resume implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols, an illegal Trump-era policy that returned people seeking asylum to unsafe conditions in Mexico. Under MPP people seeking asylum were forced to await their U.S. court dates in dangerous conditions in northern Mexico, under the threat of violence, kidnappings, and homelessness. 

MPP in tandem with another violent policy, Title 42, is exposing families, children, and adults to the very same dangers. Since the president took office, human rights investigators have documented over 6,300 violent attacks on people expelled to Mexico. If President Biden truly wants to turn the page on the racism and cruelty of the Trump era, his administration must immediately stop the expulsions, permanently end MPP, and welcome with dignity all people seeking safety at our nation’s doorstep.  as several #WelcomeWithDignity partners asserted in an amicus brief — any form of MPP would in fact violate the laws of the United States and its treaty obligations to people escaping persecution.

“Restarting any version of the Trump administration’s notorious Remain in Mexico policy will lead to immense human suffering,” said Eleanor Acer, Senior Director of Refugee Protection, Human Rights First. “Trump 2.0 policies at the border are a recipe for continued cruelty, disorder, and violations of refugee law. The Biden administration must honor its promise to terminate this horrific program and also end its Title 42 policy, which likewise sends people seeking refuge to places where they are targets of kidnappings, attacks, and persecution.”

“The Biden administration has chosen to reinstate MPP for political expediency at the cost of human lives,” said Lisa Koop, Associate Director of Legal Services, National Immigrant Justice Center. “Reinstating MPP will place thousands of migrants and asylum seekers in danger. NIJC has worked with countless individuals who faced unimaginable violence, including women and children who were kidnapped and sexually assaulted while in MPP.  Meanwhile, the Title 42 expulsion policy remains in place, causing parallel strife for those seeking safety. Once again, we call on the Biden administration to take all measures legally available to bring this horrific record to bear and achieve termination of this inhumane program.”

“MPP is unsafe, inhumane, and unlawful and the Biden Administration’s continued use of this policy is cementing his legacy as a continuation of what Trump started,” said Jonathan Goldman, Executive Director of the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice. “The administration’s delay in issuing a new termination memo is an insincere confirmation that they support this cruel policy and they must terminate the injunction immediately. Asylum is a human right and we must allow people to access this essential form of relief.”

“There is no humane way to implement MPP,” said Jorge Loweree, Policy Director at the American Immigration Council. “The Trump administration created MPP to eliminate due process for 70,000 people and forced vulnerable families to run a gauntlet of kidnappers and extortionists just to get to the courtroom door. The last two years prove that there is no protection possible through the Migrant Protection Protocols.”

“It is disgraceful that this administration continues to put the lives of thousands of children and families in danger while using the courts as an excuse. The reality is that people will be subject to violence, rape, extortion,assault—and in some cases family separation,” said Paola Luisi, Director with Families Belong Together. “President Biden promised he would address the Migrant Protection Protocols on day one of his administration, and instead we have witnessed a Trump-era assault on children and families. It is unacceptable, and the Biden administration must issue a new memo immediately to end this travesty once and for all.”

“Remain in Mexico has caused immeasurable harm to vulnerable asylum seekers who we should instead be welcoming with dignity and compassion,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “The Biden administration has announced several significant steps to implement Remain in Mexico in compliance with the District Court’s order, yet the Biden administration has failed to issue a new memo to end this unlawful Trump policy to prevent any version of it from harming even one more person. This move is yet another in a mounting list of failings by this administration to live up to the campaign promises that got President Biden elected.  We urge the administration to reverse course and to refocus its efforts on building a just 21st century immigration system, ending all harmful deterrence policies at the border, and restoring full access to asylum — including at ports of entry — for those seeking safety and freedom in our country.” 

“By failing to end the MPP program once and for all and restart asylum processing, the administration is making a choice,” said Blaine Bookey, Legal Director, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies. “A choice to continue the racist, xenophic policies of the Trump administration. A choice to endanger the lives of human beings who are in need of protection. A choice to break the law and our legal and moral duty to provide safe haven. Enough. A fundamentally inhumane program cannot be fixed. There is no excuse for the administration’s delay in issuing a new termination memorandum—the U.S. government was able to marshal the resources to expel thousands of Haitians in a matter of days. We can no longer believe that the administration is prioritizing its promise to rebuild the asylum system. Prove us wrong.”

“The Remain in Mexico (MPP) policy is cruel, inhumane, and unlawful. MPP has profound and deadly consequences and will continue to put lives in jeopardy regardless of the form it takes. This policy threatens the well-being of countless people who are at risk of unnecessary harm,” said Meredith Owen, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Church World Service. “The administration should uphold our moral and legal obligations to people fleeing violence and persecution and restore all asylum protections. That requires immediately terminating the MPP policy by issuing a new termination memo, ending ‘Title 42’ expulsions, particularly of our Haitian neighbors, and re-envisioning a system of equity, particularly for Black asylum seekers and migrants and of protecting the dignity of all people.”

It is appalling and unacceptable that the Biden Administration would choose to restart a program that is a proven human rights travesty, said Daniel Tully, counsel at Justice Action Center. “On the campaign trail, President Biden himself called Remain in Mexico ‘dangerous and inhumane,’ and vowed to end it. To renege on this promise and willfully choose to move forward a program that is guaranteed to result in human rights violations including rape, kidnapping, and death boggles the mind and is simply heartbreaking. Remain in Mexico is no longer a relic of the Trump era—this racist, cruel policy is now the shameful legacy of the Biden Administration.”

“There is no safe way to put families in harm’s way,” said Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication at America’s Voice. “Following four years of relentless cruelty and chaos at the hands of Trump, Stephen Miller and their cronies at DHS, the Biden administration came into office promising a ‘transformative vision’ – meaning a multi-layered regional strategy of root cause alleviation, expanded refugee and legal immigration pathways, sound border management, and a fair and functional asylum process. Reinstating MPP in any form or fashion and pushing people into danger is a crisis – a moral crisis caused by the growing gap between what was promised and what the administration is doing.”

“The ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy has already done irreparable harm to tens of thousands of people fleeing grave persecution, including survivors of gender-based violence,” said Rachel Sheridan, Litigation Counsel of the Tahirih Justice Center. “There is no humane way to restart the program, which subjects asylum seekers to further exploitation, violence, and trauma while depriving them of meaningful access to counsel and due process protections. Reimplementation of this cruel policy in any form seriously undermines the government’s obligation to provide access to asylum in the U.S.”

“Time and time again, the Biden administration has failed in its promise to ‘undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration’ and create a more humane immigration system,” said Amy Fischer, Americas Advocacy Director at Amnesty International USA. “The re-implementation of MPP is the latest example of the U.S. government’s callous border policies and any attempt to paint its re-implementation as more humane ignores the reality that MPP puts people in peril, particularly for Black migrants who bear the brunt of these policies. The Biden administration must reinstate access to asylum and end expulsions under policies such as MPP and Title 42. Seeking asylum is a human right.”

“We vehemently condemn the inhumane Migration Protection Protocols (MPP),” said Juanita Cabrera Lopez, Maya Mam Nation and Executive Director of the International Mayan League. “MPP is detrimental to all asylum seekers, and we remain firm that Black and Indigenous Peoples are particularly vulnerable as it places these already at-risk groups in extremely dangerous situations in Mexico where they are targeted by human and sex traffickers, cartels, and other criminal factions, simply because of their Indigenous and Black identities. Racism, discrimination, and  language exclusion add additional factors to the detrimental treatment of our peoples and diverse communities.  Again, we reiterate the urgency for the establishment of an Indigenous Peoples Commission recognized by the U.S. government which can address the existing flaws within the U.S. Imigration system that deny our basic human rights to identify as an Indigenous person, right to speak our primary language and in turn due process.”   

“The Biden administration’s lack of urgency to issue a memo to terminate Remain in Mexico make it clear that they are focused on justifying restarting the policy instead of building the humane asylum system that was promised on the campaign trail,” said Luis Guerra, CLINIC’s Strategic Capacity Officer. CLINIC refuses to accept a policy where people seeking asylum will be put through an unnecessary survival gauntlet, where their ability to come out alive is part of the calculation on whether they merit access to protection. Remain in Mexico creates insurmountable due process and access to counsel issues. The administration must expedite a plan to end the Remain in Mexico policy and move us to a fair, just, and welcoming system.”

“There is no way to humanize an inherently inhumane policy,” said Marisa Limón Garza, Hope Border Institute’s Deputy Director. “Now is the time for the Biden administration to muster the moral courage and use every tool to fight against the political forces who want to externalize access to asylum at the southern border. Their willingness to fight the Remain in Mexico policy will be part of their legacy.”

“LGBTQ asylum seekers, especially transgender and Black LGBTQ migrants, suffered greatly from the remain in Mexico policy,” said Lynly Egyes, Transgender Law Center’s Legal Director. “Reimplementation of any form of that policy is unacceptable and will not keep LGBTQ people safe. There is no safe or humane way to implement a policy like this. LGBTQ asylum seekers deserve due process and safety when applying for asylum, they shouldn’t be fearing for their lives and hoping they will be able to safely make it to court.”

“Remain in Mexico is an unnecessary, illegal, and inhumane policy that puts migrants and asylum seekers  in danger as they wait in limbo for their chance to petition for safety in the U.S., said Joan Rosenhauer, Executive Director of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA. “We encourage the Biden Administration to do everything in its power to continue challenging  the Texas court decision that reinstated this policy, rather than move forward with its implementation. The Biden Administration must issue a new memorandum terminating Remain in Mexico and continue to fight this harmful policy that puts migrants and asylum seekers in grave danger and denies them access to a fair due process in the United States.”

“It’s disheartening, to say the least, to go backwards when it comes to saving lives. Remain in Mexico has been a humanitarian disaster and did nothing but cause chaos and disorder in Northern Mexico while keeping asylum seekers from seeking safety with the support of lawyers and others ready to help them here in the U.S.,” said Melanie Nezer, HIAS’ senior vice president for public affairs. “We urge the Biden Administration to take a pragmatic and humane approach to the border, which does not include barring asylum seekers.”

“There is no way to improve a program designed to deny families safety and justice,” said Carmen Maria Rey, U.S. Legal Director of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP). “MPP was defined by an epidemic of extortion, violence, and murder against asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico, and it is unconscionable that the Biden administration plans to re-implement one of the most harmful immigration policies of the previous administration. The Biden administration must immediately issue a new memo to terminate MPP and restore full access to the asylum system at the border.” 

“The Biden administration knows that there is no safe, humane, or lawful way to implement MPP or any similar policy,” said Ursela Ojeda, senior policy advisor of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “It is shameful and unacceptable for the administration to continue to delay issuing a new termination memo and to use the court order as an excuse to implement a new version of this awful and dangerous policy. The Biden administration promised it would do better than the cruel and unjust policies of its predecessor. Yet nearly ten months into this administration, President Biden’s border policies perpetuate harm and injustice on those lawfully seeking protection in the United States. Policies like MPP and expulsions under Title 42 are, by intentional design, racist and xenophobic and are fundamentally incompatible with due process and dignity. MPP must not re-start. Expulsions of families and adults under Title 42 must end. And more broadly, the administration must truly restart asylum processing, including at ports of entry, and create a process that upholds our laws and our values, and welcomes with dignity. We won’t accept anything less.” 

“You cannot make an inhumane  program humane, you cannot make an unfair program fair, you cannot breathe life into a deadly program, you cannot make a program that disrespects the dignity of people respectful, you cannot welcome people with closed doors,” said Thomas Cartwright of the Leadership Table of Witness at the Border. “ Title 42 is an abhorrent Trump policy that must end and Trump’s MPP must not be reinstated. Keeping promises means not breaking promises. It is long past time for the Biden Administration to live up to their promises.”

“It is unacceptable that the Biden administration is choosing to re-implement this inhumane Trump-era policy,” said Chelsea Sachau, an attorney with the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. “The Biden campaign ran on the promise of restoring a safe, orderly asylum system, and MPP couldn’t be further from that. Moreover, in March, President Biden himself acknowledged that MPP had an ‘incredibly negative impact on the law, international law, as well as on human dignity.’ To now pretend that there is any way in which his administration can reform and revamp such a disastrous and deadly program is disingenuous. The Biden administration has had multiple opportunities to make good on its promises to build back a better asylum system; today’s announcement shows they are choosing once again to place politics over human lives and dignity. We demand better.”   

“It is appalling that the Biden Administration is considering restarting the MPP policy,” said Daniella Burgi-Palomino, Co-director, Latin America Working Group. “This will mean even more human rights violations and suffering for people arriving at our border. There is no safe, humane, or lawful way to implement this policy. We have seen the results before. This is not restoring access to asylum. Far from it—the Biden Administration is making a conscious choice to re-implement a Trump era policy and ramping up Title 42 expulsions to send people back to harm, when it could be issuing a termination memo for MPP and restoring a humane way to process people at the border. Until then, it is just continuing Trump-era policies and denying access to protection for thousands seeking safety in violation of international law and breaking promises.”

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Join the movement and sign our pledge to #WelcomeWithDignity.  

The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign is composed of more than 85 organizations committed to transforming the way the United States receives and protects people forced to flee their homes to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly. To learn more and join our campaign visit: welcomewithdignity.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 14, 2021

CONTACT: press@welcomewithdignity.org 

National Day of Action for Black Migrants, NYT Ad, Calls for Better Treatment of Asylum Seekers by Biden Administration

Washington — The #WelcomeWithDignity campaign placed a full-page advertisement in the New York Times to mark the National Day of Action for Black Immigrants today. Haitian Bridge Alliance, a #WelcomeWithDignity campaign member, called for the national day of action in response to the horrific mistreatment of Black immigrants and people seeking asylum at the southern border and the administration’s continued expulsions of more than 7,700 Haitians seeking asylum to danger. 

The day of action also comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcement that starting at some point in November, it will allow non-essential travelers from Mexico and Canada who have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 to enter the United States. This is welcomed news for families that have been separated since March of 2020. Nonetheless, DHS continues to bar the entry of people seeking protection into the United States by misusing a public health authority known as Title 42. 

“Allowing non-essential travel from the United States while simultaneously barring the entry of human beings fleeing danger under the guise of public health lays bare the hypocrisy and racist underpinnings of the Biden administration’s continued misuse of Title 42,” said Melina Roche, #WelcomeWithDignity campaign manager. “To honor promises made on the campaign trail and the national day of action for Black immigrants, the Biden administration must immediately cease implementation of Title 42, and restore the human right to seek asylum for all people seeking protection. ” 

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Join the movement and sign our pledge to #WelcomeWithDignity.  

The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign is composed of more than 85 organizations committed to transforming the way the United States receives and protects people forced to flee their homes to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly. To learn more and join our campaign visit: welcomewithdignity.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 1, 2021

CONTACT: press@welcomewithdignity.org 

#WelcomeWithDignity: Court Ruling Will Endanger Families Seeking Safety; Biden Must End Title 42

Washington — Yesterday the D.C. Circuit Court granted the government’s request for stay in Huisha-Huisha v. Mayorkas, allowing the Biden administration to continue expelling families and children to danger under its inhumane Title 42 policy. Two weeks ago a federal judge ruled Title 42 illegal, issuing an injunction that would have taken effect today. The Biden administration’s decision to continue defending the policy in court has put that injunction on pause. The consequences for families and children seeking safety will be deadly.

Members of the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign, which include organizations serving people expelled under Title 42 and litigators in the Huisha-Huisha case, responded to the ruling:

“The Biden administration should have never appealed this case,” said Tami Goodlette, Director of Litigation at Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) and co-counsel in the Huisha-Huisha case. “The lower court concluded Title 42 was illegal and should not be applied to exclude families from seeking asylum in the U.S. But rather than allow families to seek refuge in our country — which is legal under U.S. law and international law — the administration chose to further promulgate the Trump administration’s racist and xenophobic policies by appealing the case, and then proceeding to expel thousands of Haitians from Del Rio, Texas under Title 42. The Biden administration has lost its way and needs to remember its promises from the election. Migrants deserve better. Our country deserves better.”

“The Biden administration’s embrace of Title 42 has exposed people seeking safety to untold violence and suffering,” said Neela Chakravartula, Managing Attorney at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and co-counsel in the Huisha-Huisha case. “The administration’s decision to defend the policy in court is unconscionable, and a complete betrayal of the president’s promise to restore access to asylum. Recent events have laid bare the tragic consequences of Title 42. In less than two weeks, the administration has expelled over 5,000 Haitians to a country plagued with widespread violence and insecurity – a human rights travesty, and no small operational feat. They could have used those resources to safely welcome Haitians seeking refuge. Instead, the president has adopted Trump’s racist policy as his own, without regard for the families and children harmed as a result.”

“Just days after witnessing images of the horrific abuses of Black migrants seeking safety at our borders under Title 42, it is disturbing that the Biden administration would continue to maintain and defend this callous policy harming people seeking refuge,” said Avideh Moussavian, director of federal advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center.  “That last night’s ruling came on the same day that DHS issued new enforcement priorities that arbitrarily and unjustly label people as threats to border security based solely on their attempt to enter the U.S. – often under the most vulnerable and desperate circumstances – speaks to this administration’s deeply harmful focus on deterrence. We will continue to fight this policy and others that disproportionately impact Black and LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and push to hold this administration accountable to its promise to build a 21st century immigration system that centers the dignity of everyone.”

“All President Biden needed to do to stop applying Trump’s Title 42 to families was not seek a stay or appeal, but they did,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, Immigrant Defenders’ Co-Founder and Executive Director. “Expelling families with kids and other asylum seekers back to the dangerous countries they have fled with no due process is now a Biden policy, one that the Biden Administration fought hard to keep.”

“Abusing an obscure public health rule to shut down our asylum system is Stephen Miller’s racist legacy. Every day that the Biden administration allows this policy to remain in place is a day that the government knowingly puts children and families in harm’s way. What we witnessed at Del Rio last week is a stark reminder of just how violent this policy is. It’s an insult to America’s family values that within the past month thousands of Haitians — including babies and toddlers — have been expelled back to danger,” said Paola Luisi, Director of Families Belong Together. “The Biden administration should live up to its promises and end Title 42 immediately. The world is watching Mr. President: we should be protecting children and families, not expelling them back to danger.” 

“What we know about Title 42 after a year of witnessing its impact firsthand at the border is this: it puts vulnerable migrants in danger, it violates asylum law and it empowers criminal groups to take advantage of those who are expelled,” said Dylan Corbett, Executive Director of Hope Border Institute. “Title 42 was the driving force behind the mass deportations of Haitian refugees, one of the largest mass expulsions in U.S. history. The court’s decision yesterday was a troubling denial of the reality at the border and the unnecessary suffering of the families we are putting in harm’s way.” 

“The Florence Project is dismayed that a court has granted the Biden administration’s request to halt a court order that would have protected families seeking protection in the United States,” said Chelsea Sachau, an attorney with the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights  Project. “People we meet on the Arizona-Sonora border tell us every day that Title 42 puts them in extremely dangerous situations. Asylum seekers tell us that they want to abide by a safe, orderly asylum process. However, despite campaign promises to the contrary, the Biden administration has failed to give them one, even after nine months in office. In fact, they are fighting tooth and nail to defend this indefensible, Trump-era policy and as a result, to prolong the tremendous human suffering it causes. We can welcome asylum seekers safely and with dignity – the Biden administration is choosing not to at every single opportunity.”

“The Biden Administration’s continued defense of Title 42 and its ongoing, devastating effects on human rights at the U.S-Mexico border, which includes over 5,400 Haitians unjustly and cruelly expelled pursuant to these policies within the last 11 days, is outrageous and unconscionable. We will not rest until these practices are eliminated and full reparations have been made to all those who have been affected by these serious human rights crimes,” said Camilo Pérez-Bustillo, on behalf of the leadership team of Witness at the Border.

“Title 42 was a disgrace under the Trump Administration, and now, a disgrace under the Biden Administration,” said Karen Tumlin, Founder and Director of Justice Action Center. “The unlawful and immoral policy has never been about protecting public health, but rather, the power to summarily expel asylum seekers back to the very danger they are fleeing. That the Biden Administration would deliberately pursue to uphold the application of Title 42 to children and families is particularly shameful, and immigrant communities and advocates will continue to call on President Biden to end this immoral and unlawful policy once and for all.”

“The D.C. Circuit court’s decision, which allows the Biden administration to continue to shut the door to people seeking protection and send them back to harm without due process, is beyond disappointing, it is devastating,” said Luis Guerra, CLINIC’s Strategic Capacity Officer.  “We will continue to urge the Biden administration to take bold action at our border by creating safe and dignified pathways for those seeking protection and stop hiding behind and upholding the xenophobic policies of the prior administration. The continued use of Title 42 is shameful, unconscionable and simply inhumane; President Biden has the power and means to end it today. Continuing Title 42 is an absolute affront to our laws and our humanity.”

“The calls come daily, a young journalist in Nicaragua whose life is being threatened because of his political views, a mother and her two young children who watched her brother’s murder by cartel and was told they were next, the thousands of people standing on the other side of a horrific wall seeking refuge from climate disasters, violence, and so much more, all turned away because of a public health law dug up by Stephen Miller to forward his racist agenda”, said Laurie Benson, Founder of Madres e Hijos. “Every day that the Biden Administration fights to keep this policy in place is a day that they put politics before people, political agendas before humanity.”

“While yesterday’s decision from the court was disappointing, ultimately nothing is preventing the Biden administration from doing the right thing and choosing to end its use of Title 42 to expel families and adults seeking protection at our border,” said Ursela Ojeda, Senior Policy Advisor for Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “Title 42 is an unlawful and xenophobic Trump-era policy that weaponized public health to shut down access to protection at the border. We are outraged by the Biden administration’s decision to continue such expulsions which summarily return vulnerable individuals and families to harm and perpetuate suffering and chaos at the border. We call on the administration to finally restore access to asylum, including by reopening ports of entry.”

“The Biden Administration’s embrace of Title 42 is so absolutely maliciously evil because they’ve done that political calculus that this obscure policy is just complex enough to never grip the mainstream media’s and public’s full attention so the government can just continue harming immigrants without being held accountable,” said Jonathan Goldman, Executive Director of the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice. “There is no excuse here. They are complicit in the harm started by Trump. The Biden Administration has not simply continued the policy, which would have been bad enough, but they’ve actively attempted to keep it alive.”

“The Biden administration’s continued embrace of Title 42 expulsions defies domestic and international law, disregards experts’ repeated advice on how to handle public health, and puts families and individuals in danger,” said Andrew Geibel, Policy Counsel at HIAS. “Its continued use, including its use to deport over 5,000 vulnerable Haitians back to a country that cannot properly integrate them, shocks the conscience. The Biden administration should end this appeal immediately.”

“The federal court of appeals ruling allowing the Biden Administration to continue migrant expulsions at the border under Title 42 is a major disappointment,” said Joan Rosenhauer, Executive Director of Jesuit Refugee Service USA. “When President Biden campaigned in 2020, he promised he would repair our asylum process and rebuild it from the Trump Administration’s attempts to dismantle it and prevent asylum seekers, as well as refugees and other immigrants, from entering the United States. Instead, he is continuing some of the Trump Administration’s worst policies. Rather than defending and legitimizing President Trump’s legacy, the Biden Administration should be putting more policies in place based on respect for international law and the United States’ legacy of welcoming the stranger and providing safety for those fleeing persecution. Title 42 represents the complete opposite.” 

“Once again, the Biden Administration has shown that it is more committed to defending Title 42 than upholding the human rights of asylum seekers,” said Amy Fischer, Americas Advocacy Director at Amnesty International USA. “The continued weaponization of the pandemic to expel people from our border will result in serious harm for the thousands who have been denied protection, including thousands of Haitians who have been brutalized and expelled under the policy in recent weeks. There is simply no way around it – Title 42 must end, and every day the Biden Administration fights to uphold it, they choose xenophobia and racism over protecting human rights.”

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Join the movement and sign our pledge to #WelcomeWithDignity.  

The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign is composed of more than 85 organizations committed to transforming the way the United States receives and protects people forced to flee their homes to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly. To learn more and join our campaign visit: welcomewithdignity.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 1, 2021

CONTACT: press@welcomewithdignity.org 

DHS Enforcement Memo Undermines the Legal Right to Seek Asylum

Washington — Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a deeply concerning new memo outlining enforcement and removal priorities for immigration agents. The memo appears to categorically designate people who cross the border seeking protection as a “threat to border security” and prioritizes them for apprehension and removal in violation of U.S. treaty obligations barring the imposition of penalties on people seeking protection on account of unlawful entry or presence. The memo does not address past abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or the history of systemic racism and anti-Blackness in our nation’s immigration laws, and only mentions the word ‘asylum’ once, failing to acknowledge that asylum seekers arriving at the border have a legal right to request protection in the United States.

“The treatment of Haitian asylum seekers at the border in recent weeks is a devastating reminder of the racism and anti-Blackness in our nation’s immigration laws, and today’s enforcement memo fails to center racial justice and establish a policy that upholds the human rights of immigrants and asylum-seekers,” said Amy Fischer, Americas Advocacy Director at Amnesty International USA. “While we welcome the improvements to review cases holistically and embrace prosecutorial discretion, by continuing to place recent arrivals, including asylum-seekers, as enforcement priorities, this policy continues to rely on the United States’ racist criminal legal system to determine whether an individual is a threat to public safety. The United States must restore access to asylum and embrace a protection-based framework that upholds racial justice and dignity. Seeking asylum is a human right, regardless of how someone chooses to seek it.”

“Punishing recently arrived asylum seekers by designating them as enforcement priorities is cruel and inhumane. It inflicts further trauma on those who have left everything behind to find safety. It is also perverse in light of U.S. government policies that have deliberately forced asylum seekers to remain outside of the United States for months or years,” said Robyn Barnard, senior advocacy counsel at Human Rights First. “Treating people seeking refugee protection as priorities for arrest and deportation would moreover flout U.S. legal obligations under the Refugee Convention and Protocol, which makes clear that people seeking refuge should not be penalized.”

“After the seemingly all-out assault on immigrants and immigrant communities during the Trump years, these guidelines provide essential guidance for federal agencies. It is especially important that those who have asserted their legal rights should no longer be targets simply for doing so,” said Katrina Huber, Project Coordinator with the SPLC’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI). “With that said, while it is important to have clear parameters for federal agencies, especially ones notorious for their callous abuse of immigrants, it is clearer every day the real solution is true reform of the nation’s immigration laws with a pathway to citizenship.”

“Let us say this in no uncertain terms: while the person sitting in the oval office may have changed from Trump to Biden, this type of xenophobic policy-making is merely a revolving door of what we have seen over the last four years,” said Jonathan Goldman, Executive Director of the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice. “DHS, Biden, Secretary Mayorkas, whoever it is, can change the laws all they want but one thing remains the same: people seeking asylum are not a threat, people seeking to be reunited with their families are not a threat, immigrants are not a threat, period. If even a small percentage of the thought that goes into coming up with these harmful policies went towards thinking about how we could be helping families versus hurting them, we would have a stronger, healthier, happier, and safer country.”

“Following the horrific mistreatment of Haitian migrants at the border this past month, we are especially appalled to see the Biden administration’s DHS label migrants who attempt to cross the border outside of ports of entry as ‘threats to border security.’ With Title 42 in place, asylum seekers have virtually no other way to enter the country, and these false labels further perpetuate the cruel treatment of migrants at the border. Lip service condemning the heinous treatment of migrants at the border will never be enough; the Biden administration must take decisive action to put an end to these harmful labels and restore access to asylum,” said Sirine Shebaya, Executive Director of the National Immigration Project.

“Women’s Refugee Commission is deeply disappointed to see people legally seeking asylum once again targeted as a top enforcement priority in the U.S. immigration system,” said Katharina Obser, director for Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “Seeking asylum is a legal and human right, and yet the administration has continued to make it almost impossible for those coming to ports of entry. At a time when the administration should be reversing course on deeply harmful anti-asylum policies, these new enforcement priorities will – like similar ones that preceded it – instead punish asylum seekers simply for having fled violence or harm and sought safety at the U.S. border.”

“By prioritizing recent border-crossers for enforcement without addressing the shutdown of asylum at our border, the Department of Homeland Security effectively prioritizes deporting some of the most vulnerable,” said Andrew Geibel, Policy Counsel at HIAS. “We welcome the use of prosecutorial discretion, but until the right to seek asylum at the border is fully restored, DHS’ approach will undermine the right of people to seek asylum.”

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Join the movement and sign our pledge to #WelcomeWithDignity.  

The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign is composed of more than 85 organizations committed to transforming the way the United States receives and protects people forced to flee their homes to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly. To learn more and join our campaign visit: welcomewithdignity.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 29, 2021

CONTACT: press@welcomewithdignity.org 

#WelcomeWithDignity Welcomes New MPP Termination Memo; Demands Biden Do More to End Cruelty and Chaos at the Border

Washington — Today the Biden administration announced it will issue a new memo terminating the cruel and illegal Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). While the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign is glad the administration has adopted a recommendation repeatedly shared by our members, our leaders must do more to create a safe and fair asylum process. The memo will address concerns raised in litigation brought by the states of Texas and Missouri resulting in a flawed court decision ordering the administration to restart MPP in August. However, as several #WelcomeWithDignity partners asserted in an amicus brief filed earlier this week — any form of MPP would in fact violate the laws of the United States and its treaty obligations to people escaping persecution.

Under MPP people seeking asylum were forced to await their U.S. court dates in dangerous conditions in northern Mexico, under the threat of violence, kidnappings, and homelessness. Although the Biden administration continues to signal its intent to fully end MPP, its embrace of another violent policy, Title 42, is exposing families, children, and adults to the very same dangers. Since the president took office, human rights investigators have documented over 6,300 violent attacks on people expelled to Mexico. In the past 10 days alone, the world has watched in horror as the administration has used Title 42 to expel over 6,000 Haitians to a country in deep crisis. If President Biden truly wants to turn the page on the racism and cruelty of the Trump era, his administration must immediately stop the expulsions, permanently end MPP, and welcome with dignity all people seeking safety at our nation’s doorstep.

“The #WelcomeWithDignity campaign looks forward to the expeditious issuance of a new memo to end MPP, also known as ‘Remain in Mexico,’ once and for all,” said Melina Roche, Campaign Manager of #WelcomeWithDignity. “There is no safe or humane way to carry out MPP or similar policies that require people seeking safety to wait in Mexico while their asylum cases are being processed. We urge the Biden administration to take all necessary steps to preserve the wind down of MPP that began earlier this year and continue to process into safety people previously subjected to MPP. To restore access to asylum at the border, the administration also must end the unlawful and cruel Title 42 expulsions.”

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Join the movement and sign our pledge to #WelcomeWithDignity.  

The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign is composed of more than 85 organizations committed to transforming the way the United States receives and protects people forced to flee their homes to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly. To learn more and join our campaign visit: welcomewithdignity.org