Lawyers for Good Government condemns policies proposed yesterday by the Biden administration that would have the effect of dramatically restricting access to asylum. Under this new asylum ban, many presenting at our southern border would be unable to seek refuge in our country unless they have already sought the protection of another country that they passed through, have been granted permission to enter the U.S. ahead of time, or have obtained an appointment through the demonstrably ineffective CBP One app. If they are unable to meet one of these prerequisites, they will be presumed ineligible for asylum, regardless of the merit of their claim. This is in direct conflict with established statutory and international law. We call on the administration to immediately withdraw the rule and instead pursue pathways to fair, orderly migration that restore full asylum.
As a 501(c)(3) pro bono legal services and advocacy organization, L4GG is among a handful of organizations with attorneys representing asylum seekers in Mexico. Our Project Corazon clients are LGBTQ+ people, political activists, racial minorities, victims of abuse, and other people fleeing violent persecution in their countries of origin. The majority, if not all, of the countries through which our clients transit have poorly functioning or non-existent asylum systems. Further, many of them pose the same dangers to our clients as their home countries.
We have personally seen how CBP One, the app upon which the asylum ban is built, harms the most vulnerable asylum seekers and can pose a nearly-insurmountable obstacle to urgent claims of asylum. Internet access is so spotty as to be nearly unusable in Reynosa, with even our own attorneys being unable to reliably operate the app from our state-of-the-art smartphones. Every day, asylum seekers wake up at 3:00 AM in order to get sufficient wifi to prepare their applications and be able to submit them right at 8:00 AM, before all the appointments are gone. The search for an internet signal is so desperate, multiple people have been injured while placing themselves in precarious situations just to get service.
Then, there are those who are held hostage by technological glitches and cannot even request appointments. People like *Oralia, who was kidnapped, beaten and tortured at the hands of criminals in Mexico. She and her child still have a price on their heads. They hide in fear and have been denied entry by port officials, even after our attorneys presented evidence of her emergency medical needs. Every time she goes through the process of seeking an appointment in the app, she is kicked out and it sends her back to the beginning of the process. The proposed asylum ban will severely exacerbate the already-extreme barriers to entry created by the CBP One App.
Just this week, L4GG witnessed families forced apart by the use of CBP One for Title 42 exemptions. By using the app as the exclusive way to seek asylum, the Biden administration is turning our entire asylum system into a lottery, where the stakes are human lives. Policy that prioritizes political expediency over the protection of human rights always has the greatest and most severe impact on the most vulnerable populations. The proposed asylum ban is no different. Its implementation will disparately harm communities of color, members of the LBGTQ+ community and those with the fewest resources to advocate for themselves and their families.
We call on the Biden administration to remember its promises made on the campaign trail and in executive orders, withdraw this rule, and restore full asylum.
*Pseudonym to protect her identity.
L4GG: Biden’s Proposed “Asylum Ban” Will Turn Asylum into a Lottery, Where the Stakes are Human Lives