Washington, DC – While the Trump administration continues its all-out assault on the legal right to request asylum, lawyers, human rights groups, and faith-based organizations have mounted a formidable defense.
This week alone, over 400 constituents from forty-five states and the District of Columbia are participating in virtual legislative visits with 185 congressional offices, calling on members of Congress to #SaveAsylum. Also, given just thirty days to respond to a massive anti-asylum proposed rule, these same organizations launched an unprecedented and intense comment drive.
With over 79,000 comments submitted, well over 10,000 were delivered by the faith community, due to major participation from many faiths and a public comment drive led by CLINIC.
“In its campaign to end asylum, the Trump administration consistently violates both the law and moral values,” said Elissa Diaz, Policy Associate at Church World Service and Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) Co-Chair. “People of faith and conscience, we need to stand up. Jesus was a refugee. Trump and Miller would turn him away today.”
In Ms. Magazine, Nene Bah describes how Trump’s attack on asylum would have kept her and her family from protection if they had been forced to make their claim today. Now a U.S. citizen, Bah and her family were persecuted for refusing to allow their daughter to be cut, something the Trump administration would apparently consider a “family matter” not worthy of U.S. protection. They also transited from West Africa to the United States via a connecting flight, another bar to asylum if Trump and Stephen Miller had their way.
What would have happened to Bah if she had been forced to apply for asylum today? She writes: “My husband and I may not be alive today and our daughter would have been married off as the third wife of a man in his fifties by the time she was twelve.”
Asylum is about saving lives. Which is all the more reason why we need to restore asylum protections, welcome asylum seekers, and #SaveAsylum.
Read comments to the June 15 proposed rule from Church World Service; CLINIC; Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach; Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism; Disciples Refugee & Immigration Ministries, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); HIAS and Anti-Defamation League; Leadership Conference of Women Religious; Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd; National Council of Jewish Women; The Sisters of Mercy of the Americas; Unitarian Universalist Service Committee; and USCCB.
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of 55 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants.
Follow us on Twitter @interfaithimm
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