RELEASE: Tennessee Immigrant Rights Group Condemns Biden's Executive Order On Immigration
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JUNE 4, 2024
CONTACT
Hamp Price, hamp@tnimmigrant.org
Tennessee Immigrant Rights Group Condemns Biden's Executive Order On Immigration
Today's executive order takes our already dysfunctional and outdated immigration system in the wrong direction.
NASHVILLE— Today the Biden Administration issued an executive order arbitrarily restricting the number of individuals entering the country, barring people from seeking asylum for periods of time, and increasing screening requirements for other humanitarian protection. The order is similar to the failed bipartisan border deal and is more restrictive than a 2018 effort by Trump to deter immigration, which faced strong opposition from Democrats and was blocked by federal courts.
Biden issued the order under Immigration and Nationality Act sections 212(f) and 215(a), restricting entry of noncitizens who cross the Southern border into the United States when there is an average of 2,500 crossings per day over a seven-day period, thus immediately closing the border and restricting legal rights to seek asylum at ports of entry. As an Interim Final Rule, the order takes effect immediately and bypasses the usual participatory notice-and-comment rulemaking process.
The following is a statement from Lisa Sherman Luna, Executive Director at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition:
“Not only does today's executive order take our already dysfunctional and outdated immigration system in the wrong direction, but it completely betrays our values as a welcoming nation that provides refuge and opportunity to our neighbors. In a clear choice of politics over people, Biden is putting people in danger, betraying our duty to asylum seekers, and making it harder for those in need to access legal pathways to immigration.
Instead of responding to this moment of unprecedented global migration with bold ideas that expand our systems of protection, address root causes of migration, and treat people with dignity, this executive order makes it harder for people to access safe and legal pathways to the US and will only exacerbate the humanitarian crisis at the border. Whether newly-arriving or long-settled, immigrant families have been clear in our demand: We need innovation and solutions, not closed doors and broken promises.”
The following is a statement from Judith Clerjeune, Advocacy Director at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition:
“The policies issued in today's order were unacceptable when Trump proposed them in 2018, they were unacceptable in last month’s border deal, and they are unacceptable now. We can all agree that our immigration system and border processes are severely out of date, but instead of choosing to be a leader in this critical moment, Biden is catering to extreme anti-immigrant positions and taking the system backwards. Rather than punitive, enforcement-only immigration policies that, according to Biden, ‘deliver timely consequences’ to people seeking safety and return them to harm, we need immigration solutions like pathways to citizenship and fair access to asylum. Instead of choosing between a false binary between order and compassion, it's time to step up and deliver a system that achieves both.”
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