Asylum in the US
September 20, 2024
Joshua Utter
Current US policy severely restricts access to asylum and violates refugee law. Although US law states that anyone can seek asylum upon arrival on US soil, recent polices put in place by the Biden Administration prevent asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border from accessing US territory unless they meet certain requirements. The most important requirement is that an asylum seeker has an appointment with US border officials scheduled through the CBP One app.
JRS/USA and other humanitarian organizations have documented the impact of CBP One on people seeking safety. Individuals have shared stories about the months-long wait to schedule an appointment and the precarious conditions they faced in Mexico.
As one woman shared at a shelter in Tijuana, “The food is limited [in the shelter] and a lot of children get sick. Hygiene is bad because access to bathrooms is limited. Everything is broken… Safety around the shelter, the place is not safe. You can see how bad it is. Because there are many men, you do not feel safe… We have too much free time and nothing to do. We do not have anything in which we can use our time. We are thinking all the time, we are depressed, we harass one another because we are stressed… Everything affects how we feel here.”
Compounding this stress is the fact that many arriving at the US-Mexico border have faced significant challenges (theft, extortion, assault, kidnapping, and torture) to reach this point on their journey. Due to the number of people reporting that they had been kidnapped, the JRS Mexico team in Ciudad Juarez tracks this number to highlight just how dangerous this journey is for people seeking safety.
For asylum seekers who cannot wait months for a CBP One appointment and attempt to cross the border without one, US border officials have been turning them away without a screening on their asylum claim. This screening, referred to as the credible fear interview (CFI), is required by law, but as documented by Human Rights First, our fellow Jesuit colleagues at Kino Border Initiative, and other NGOS, immigration officers are removing people from the US without this screening. Some individuals reported presenting their scars and bruises as physical evidence of the violence committed against them, articulating their fear of return, only to be turned away by border officials and denied the opportunity to seek asylum.
Due to these harmful restrictions on access to asylum and violations of refugee law, JRS/USA urges the Biden Administration to rescind these policies and work towards solutions that make legal, ethical, and meaningful reforms to the asylum system and expand opportunities for legal immigration pathways.
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