BRATTLEBORO — Recently, The Commons has published several stories about our community's robust welcoming of refugees and asylum seekers. Thank you!
Unfortunately, if the “asylum transit ban” currently proposed by the Biden administration had been in force for the past five years, fewer than a quarter of the asylum seekers currently supported by the Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP) in southern Vermont today would be here.
They would likely be stuck in one of the countries they passed through on their way to our southern border. They would likely be seeking asylum in a country whose systems for supporting refugees are even more broken than ours.
The desperation and fear for their lives that caused them to flee their countries in the first place would not be diminished, and their chances of finding a safe home would be almost nonexistent.
The Biden administration has proposed a federal rule to implement a near-total asylum ban at the U.S. southern border. The proposed rule would deny asylum to anyone who has passed through another country between their country of origin and the United States, unless they can prove that they applied for asylum in that country and were denied.
If implemented, this ban, along with other recent policy changes, will eliminate access to asylum for the overwhelming majority of people who come to this country to seek their legal right to asylum.
In the very first of its asylum statutes, Congress made clear there is no illegal way to seek asylum. In accordance with our obligations under international refugee and human rights laws, Congress affirmed that any noncitizen, no matter their manner or timing of entry, has an unqualified right to seek asylum in the United States.
President Biden campaigned on a promise to restore the soul of America. With regard to this issue, he is sadly missing the mark. This rule is in the comment phase, and now is the time to make your voice heard.
Please join the CASP board of directors in expressing your outrage. Submit your comment to the Biden administration by March 27 at bit.ly/707-asylumcomment.