How can our work be informed by the biblical call to love thy neighbor as ourselves? The U.S. should be prioritizing protection over detention, deportation, and deterrence strategies for Central Americans seeking refuge.
The FCNL staff and many of you have been asking this question, as we consider the policies and laws we want our government to enact. We hold our members of Congress to this high standard. But what does it really mean?
We are in the midst of the worst refugee crisis since World War II. About 65 million people are displaced worldwide, but only 25 million of them arerecognized as refugees by the United Nations. Across the world, from Syria to Central America, people are fleeing their homes because of violence and persecution. Each person displaced is waiting for the opportunity to rebuild and create a better future for themselves and their loved ones.
The United Nations’ move on September 19 to adopt a bold agenda to protect the rights of refugees and migrants worldwide is a good step. We are also pleased that President Obama has arranged for a more select number of world leaders to join him tomorrow in making tangible commitments and share global responsibility to protect and resettle refugees. While we appreciate the president’s leadership it’s not enough to address the magnitude of the problem. The United States should go far beyond what is pledged in order to be a true leader in the protection of these vulnerable populations.
A lot of attention has rightly been focused on Syrian refugees, the largest displaced population in the world, especially as more seek refuge in Europe. The U.S. should be leading efforts to help resettle Syrian refugees in the U.S. and abroad, while pursuing a political solution for the Syrian Civil War. However, the U.S. also has its own refugee crisis closer to home that we have not been doing our part for. The U.S. must radically shift policies for refugees and migrants fleeing from Central America.
While Europe has seen migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean seeking safety, the United States has children, women, and men fleeing for their lives at our southern border. So desperate, they often spend their life savings to hope a coyote, or trafficker, will get them or their child alone to safety, knowing that the harrowing journey has no guarantee of success, or even survival.
Over the past two years, the administration has doubled down on policies aimed at deterring and punishing those seeking to migrate from Central America. Our government has flooded resources into detaining families and individuals seeking asylum, conducted enforcement surges that explicitly target recent border crossers such as unrepresented Central American mothers, and given conditional aid to Mexico to increase internal checkpoints and deportations before individuals reach the U.S.-Mexico border.
The deterrence has not worked. What’s more, the efforts going into preventing refugees from reaching the U.S. don’t acknowledge the responsibility we have to protect and promote the human rights of those displaced in our own hemisphere. The United States can do better.
The U.S. should be prioritizing protection over detention, deportation, and deterrence strategies for Central Americans seeking refuge. Our domestic policies must better ensure full access to legal counsel, translation, and due process in asylum and immigration proceedings. Our foreign policies should prioritize the strengthening of local civil societies to hold their governments accountable so that fewer people are put in a position of needing refuge in the first place.
Important steps have been taken in the past few months to build capacity for international and U.S.-led refugee and asylum processing in-country for those in danger in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. These efforts should continue, and grow. But individuals in danger often do not have the luxury to apply for asylum or refugee status from home. The United States and UN High Commission on Refugees both have recognized the danger posed to Central Americans enough to expand these in-country options, but U.S. treatment of individuals arriving at our southern border fails to acknowledge that same reality. The Department of Homeland Security continues to deport people back to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. In the past two years, at least 80 people have died after being deported by the United States, we must end instead invest in protection mechanisms.
The administration and Congress should double the numbers of refugees resettled, expand other legal forms of relief, and fund refugee-related accounts accordingly.
The U.S. has the capacity to double the number of refugees admitted to our country to 200,000 through traditional refugee resettlement and additional legal approaches. This expansion would help Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war as well as Central Americans fleeing violence in their communities. Congress must in turn provide full funding to the Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide support for refugees, unaccompanied children, torture and trafficking survivors, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients, and all other populations under its mandate. When provided the assistance they need to rebuild their lives, immigrants and resettled refugees open businesses, revitalize towns, and contribute economically, socially, and spiritually to our communities.
Only a tiny fraction of refugees qualify for permanent resettlement, which requires that even if country conditions improve drastically, they would likely still not be safe returning. For other refugees and displacement populations, the United States can extend Temporary Protected Status to those who cannot safely return to their host countries. Escalating violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras is a humanitarian crisis, and warrants TPS designation for individuals fleeing for their lives. This is one important step that the president could take to expand other legal forms of relief for Central Americans while continuing to strengthen the U.S. asylum processing.
At the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees, let us ask ourselves and our government – how are we loving our closest neighbors? How can we lead the world in protecting those most vulnerable among us? We can do better by accounting for those who have asked for our protection.
