The Interfaith Immigration Coalition offers these recommendations for initial steps for the Biden-Harris administration to take in reforming executive branch immigration policies; decolonizing the U.S. role abroad; and passing immigration laws in Congress. Read the complete document, “Interfaith Framework for Welcoming and Supporting Migrants, Immigrants, Asylum Seekers, and Refugees,” here.
Bring accountability, compassion, fairness, and morality to immigration and other policies. Tear down walls and build communities.
2020 Census
Ensure that everyone living in the U.S. is counted in the 2020 Census and that all people receive political representation.
Asylum
End all anti-asylum policies implemented by the Trump and Obama administration, including illegal turnbacks of asylum-seekers, the “Remain in Mexico”/MPP policy, Title 42 expulsions, and family detention. Instead, restore and expand the Central American Minors program. Ensure all unaccompanied children arriving at U.S. borders have access to legal, social service, and anti-trafficking support, as well as adequate care.
Black Immigrants
The United States must prioritize Black immigrants and asylum seekers’ experiences in policies and legislation to build a more just, humane, and equitable immigration system. Train immigration officers and judges in country conditions and culture-based issues, such as manifestation of trauma. Restore TPS for nationals of Sudan and Haiti, and extend TPS to nationals of Cameroon, Mauritania, Haiti, and other African and Caribbean countries. Ensure fair and timely adjudications under the Liberian Refugee Immigration Status program.
Customs and Border Protection
Respect and uphold the right to seek asylum. Invest in transformational culture change within Customs and Border Protection. Replace hostility and militarization with a system built on human dignity. Enforce accountability of Border Patrol agents and leadership for their actions toward migrants and within our communities. Demilitarize the border; reduce CBP budget and size; tear down the wall and reverse environmental damage; and include our communities in decisions that affect our lives.
Family-Based Immigration
Remove all administrative barriers to family-based immigration erected by the Trump administration and enhance policies to prioritize family unity, including prosecutorial discretion and parole programs for people with access to immigration relief under the law.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Decriminalize and demilitarize interior enforcement of immigration laws. Dramatically reduce Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s budget, and the number of ICE agents. Rewrite enforcement priorities to favor family unity and justice, and protect vulnerable people. Recommit to “sensitive location” policies. Stop asking state/local police forces to hold immigrants for deportation without a warrant, violating the 4th Amendment. End all cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement agencies. End reliance on detention, eliminate mandatory detention and local bed quotas, stop funding private immigration jails, and invest in community-based alternatives to detention.
Legal Rights
Ensure immigrants have access to free or affordable lawyers and appropriate interpreters in court, at the border, in detention, and in offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Allow individuals to return to the U.S. after deportation when it is in the interest of the public good and family unity.
Public Charge
Rescind the Trump administration’s public charge rule, which harms children and significantly raises the barriers to legal immigration.
Refugee Resettlement
Rescind all Muslim, African, refugee, and asylum bans and policies that exclude people from the United States or constrict their right to apply for protection. Update the FY 2021 refugee admissions goal to resettle 100,000 people this year and 125,000 in FY 2022, with increases to follow. Ensure sufficient appropriations to rebuild domestic & overseas infrastructure. Appoint a senior-level White House coordinator and initiate an interagency audit of refugee processing and security vetting procedures.
Sanctuary
Grant stays of removal to all people living in sanctuary, so that they can return to their families. Vacate their removal orders.
Temporary Protection Programs
Fully reinstate DACA, allowing new applications. Extend DED and then TPS to nationals of countries whose status was eliminated or not redesignated. Designate DED and TPS to additional countries experiencing civil unrest, natural disasters, and other institutional breakdowns, such as Venezuela and Cameroon.
Workers’ Rights and Equity
Enforce U.S. labor and employment laws to protect all workers, regardless of immigration status. Increase the number of Department of Labor inspectors; expand training in and timely certification of U and T visas. Reform the E-Verify system, adding privacy and labor protections. Include all immigrant workers and families in COVID-19 financial relief.
Decolonize the U.S.’ role in other countries as they build and strengthen.
International and Foreign Policy
To decolonize the U.S. role abroad, we must remake the goals of foreign policy to strengthen human rights and local self-determination, and reduce militarization. Enforce transparency to weed out corruption within foreign entities. Reform trade agreements to build in respect for human and labor rights, as well as the environment.
Root Causes of Forced Displacement
Support poverty reduction and trade policies that truly benefit indigenous populations, small farmers and businesses, and women-led organizations. Address the consequences of U.S. foreign and trade policies that contribute to violence and poverty, including US trade policy; the militarized war on drugs; training and support of corrupt security forces, etc. End U.S. support to governments that engage in human rights violations. Invest in locally developed programs that address the root causes of forced displacement. Address climate change and mitigate its effects, which negatively impact communities around the world and force people to flee their homes.
Work with Congress to pass bold, humane, and compassionate immigration laws.
Our current immigration laws are rooted in racism, and therefore dramatic and systemic changes are needed. Congress and the new administration must work together to pass and implement legal changes that extend a path to citizenship for aspiring Americans; remove U.S. immigration courts from the political branch; undo anti-immigrant laws passed in 1996; dramatically reduce the size and scope of the U.S. deportation system; reduce the use of detention, end mandatory detention, cut funding for detention, and invest in community-based alternatives; end the militarization of border communities and instead invest in building up communities; and expand access to family-based immigration, diversity visas, and the refugee program.
Our diverse faith traditions compel us to welcome one another with love and compassion, regardless of place of birth, religion, or ethnicity. The Torah tells us: “The strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:33-34). In the Christian Bible, Jesus commands us to welcome the stranger, for “what you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me” (Matthew 25:40). The Qur’an directs us to “do good to… those in need, neighbors who are near, neighbors who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer that you meet” (4:36). The Hindu Taitiriya Upanishad reminds us: “The guest is a representative of God” (1.11.2).
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is rooted in these faith teachings and values, which call us to ensure that our laws promote and protect the dignity of each individual. Members of the IIC call on the new administration and Congress to join us in bold and righteous action that enshrines justice for immigrants and moves our country forward.