SPLC Statement on Biden Administration’s Proposed Asylum Ban

ATLANTA – The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released the following statement from Erin Argueta, senior lead attorney for the SPLC’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI), in response to the Biden administration’s proposed rule that would make migrants ineligible for asylum in the U.S. unless they have sought asylum in a country through which they traveled:

“It is beyond disappointing that the Biden administration is moving forward with an anti-asylum policy that is copied from the cruel transit ban issued by the Trump administration. The Biden administration should not continue putting obstacles in the way of people fleeing danger and seeking safety in the United States, which will only increase harm. Instead, this administration should be strengthening the legal right to seek asylum at the U.S. border, not proposing an unworkable alternative that will only increase harm.

“The post-Title 42 world is not something to fear. While these past three years of Title 42 have effectively closed the U.S. border to all those seeking asylum — a step that harmed Black and Brown asylum-seekers in particular — the end of Title 42 should be a return to our adherence to our legal and moral obligations to provide a way for people to seek protection at our borders. We call on the administration to find ways to do that in an orderly way, and not continue to put up barriers.”