“They may arrive here through the border we share with Mexico, but our asylum-seeking clients come from all over the world; countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Cameroon and Iran. These are people who have risked everything. Many have lost everything—except for faith and hope. We have the ability to help and we have the moral duty to help.”
Angela Edman, Managing Attorney for DC-MD JFON, from our video Which side are you on?
September 12, 2019
The Justice for Our Neighbors network provides free or low-cost immigration legal services to asylum-seekers at 17 sites across the country. Our clients are comprised of families that are in crisis and are often fleeing for their lives. They have every right to stay together and to seek protection in the United States.
We are therefore shocked and disheartened by the Supreme Court’s decision today. We know the human impact of this ruling will be immeasurable and we fear the chaos it will reap on our well-established asylum laws and traditions.
National JFON is a member of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, whose diverse faith-based organizations have been assisting asylum-seekers at the border and inside the United States for decades. With the Supreme Court’s decision to allow President Trump’s asylum ban to take effect, even before a final decision on the merits has been reached, organizations with front-line experience—like ours— are warning that such a move would amount to a death sentence for many.
“This is a serious failure of leadership and a rejection of our historical role as the world’s leader in refugee protection,” states Melanie Nezer, senior vice president of public affairs for HIAS. “When the United States turns persecuted people away, it’s not difficult to imagine a world where nobody helps them and persecuted families and children are completely on their own.”
The asylum ban comes at a time when the Trump administration is also considering ending the refugee resettlement program, which was formalized decades ago in order to save lives and ensure the United States of America would “never again” become a country that turned away so many people running for their lives.
Have we, once again, become that country?
Please read the full statement of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition HERE.
