The United States has long been a destination of migrants from around the world seeking safety and new opportunities. The image of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty welcoming “the poor huddled masses” is ingrained in our collective memory and culture.
Yes, there are many coming to our southern border seeking safety. Many of those come from countries whose people have been negatively impacted by US economic and military policies. They come here because we went there.
The UN Refugee Agency’s Global Trends 2023 report documents that of all the new individual asylum applications made in 2023 (3.6 million), the US was the world’s largest recipient of new asylum applications (1.2 million).
But the US government is trying to deter migrants from seeking asylum here. On June 4, the Biden-Harris Administration announced new plans to “secure our border.” It bars migrants from even asking for asylum when daily average Border Patrol apprehensions surpass a certain threshold—and that threshold has been defined well below the average daily numbers. This is a clear violation of international and domestic law.
While the US government and its people might like to think that they are “welcoming” more migrants than any other country does, that simply is not the case. Looking globally at the numbers of migrants needing protection (refugees, asylum-seekers), low and middle income countries do a much better job.
Hosting the largest refugee populations (including asylum-seekers and other people in need): the Islamic Republic of Iran (3.8 million), Türkiye (3.3 million), Colombia (2.9 million), Germany (2.6 million) and Pakistan (2 million). In 2023, the US resettled only 60,000 refugees, nowhere near the low bar of 125,000 it set for itself.
The unwelcoming attitude that the US presents toward migrants is illustrated by Biden’s recent asylum ban and the monthly increase in US migrant detention, now standing at 38,525. In her new book In the Shadow of Liberty, Mexican historian Ana Raquel Minian argues that migrant detention is costly, inhumane, and pointless. In 1891, the US Congress passed the nation’s first immigration detention law, which continues to dictate conditions for asylum seekers and migrants stopped at the border to this day. With regular reports of physical abuse and suicides in migrant detention, the government reversed course in 1954; the vast majority of new arrivals could be released on conditional “parole” while their cases were being reviewed. But three decades later when Fidel Castro sent 124,000 “marielitos” from Cuba to the shores of Florida during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, that all changed again. The Reagan Administration came into power in January 1981 and went full force in reinstituting immigrant detention.
There is not a border crisis. There is a humanitarian crisis at the border. Detention is never an effective deterrent. We see that with the numbers of migrants still coming to our borders. Besides the ethics and legality of it, immigrant detention is costly: the U.S. government spends more than $3 billion on incarcerating migrants each year.
Who is benefiting from the immigration carceral system?
In IRTF’s July 2024 Migrant Justice newsletter, please read about (1) Asylum Processing at the US-Mexico Border, (2) ICE Air: Update on Removal Flight Trends, (3) Migrants in Colombia: Between Government Absence and Criminal Control, (4) At the Border: Recent Incidents at and around the US-Mexico Border, (5) Honduras plans to build a 20,000-capacity ‘megaprison’ for gang members as part of a crackdown, (6) Thousands of displaced residents in southern Mexico fear returning to their homes after violence, (7) Danger in the Darién Gap: Human Rights Abuses and the Need for Humane Pathways to Safety, (8) America Turned Against Migrant Detention Before. We Can Do It Again, (9) Asylum claims are down over 40% in Mexico, and (10) UN Refugee Agency Global Trends Report 2023.
Then take a few minutes to read what you can do to take action this week in solidarity with migrants and their families. (See details at the bottom of this newsletter.)
A) Act Now for welcoming, dignified and just immigration policies
B) Root Causes: Stop Deportation Flights to Haiti
C) Root Causes: Restore Asylum for LGBTQ+ Refugees in Danger
D) Think Globally. Act Locally: Help Migrants and Refugees in Cleveland
Read the full monthly newsletter at https://www.irtfcleveland.org/blog/migrant-justice-newsletter-jul-2024
