Washington, DC – In response to Biden’s executive order that, when triggered, will temporarily shut down the Southern border to people seeking asylum, Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement:
“With Biden’s executive order, the administration continues to send a clear and dangerous message that it sees immigrant and refugee lives as expendable by enacting a racist and immoral agenda on immigration. Today’s order will close the border to people seeking asylum when there is an average of 2,500 people crossing a day over a seven day period. This executive order is not only alarming, it will undoubtedly put people – children, families, the elderly, and everyone in between – in danger.
Biden is using the same legal authority to justify his order that Trump used in 2017 for the “Muslim Ban.” We were outraged then and we are outraged now – particularly as Biden has completely abandoned the values he once touted of implementing a ‘fair and humane’ immigration system that helped him get elected. Rather, Biden is disregarding people’s right to safety, continuing to align and codify the right’s hateful agenda. Biden is not only narrowing pathways for people to come to the United States, especially the most vulnerable, he is cutting them off altogether – building an immoral policy infrastructure that willfully plays into right-wing ideologies that will cause irreversible harm today and for years to come.
Today’s executive order follows two other alarming recent developments: the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) plans to increase immigration-related prosecutions at the border and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) desire to massively increase the immigration detention system both at the border and throughout the country with a “Multi-State Detention Facility Support” Request for Information (RFI). People targeted for DOJ prosecutions at the border can be criminally prosecuted for the simple act of crossing the border and be imprisoned for months or years (sometimes decades) in the federal prison and jail system, only to then face deportation proceedings while languishing in ICE detention. The continued focus on punishing people who migrate for the simple act of moving for a new, better, or safer life is not only cruel, it is ineffective and fuels our country’s reliance on mass incarceration that disproportionately targets Black and brown people. Meanwhile, ICE’s desire to increase detention capacity in the Illinois, Harlingen, and Salt Lake City regions as noted in the RFI will also increase the targeting and racial profiling of people based on what they look like, the language they speak, and where they work while further exacerbating a system rife with abuse that is completely arbitrary.
It is clear that the administration is playing political games with people’s lives as a means to tap into fears of scarcity and insecurity while shamefully scapegoating immigrants. Instead of fighting over a piece of the pie, we can make the whole pie bigger—and our immigrant friends and neighbors, current and future, are part of that solution.
People migrating is a reality. We have a choice to be welcoming and treat people with humanity and dignity, or to punish and harm them just because they are relocating to seek a new or better life. Instead of spending billions of dollars on detaining immigrants and failing deterrence strategies at the border, the government should simplify the immigration process by allowing people to be with their loved ones and work upon arrival, so they can immediately support their families and contribute to their communities. People should be able to access help, if they need it, from community-based programs. Ultimately, we all want and deserve to feel safe and do what we need to to keep our loved ones safe.
We join immigrants and communities across the country in condemning President Biden for continuing to treat immigrants as expendable and legitimizing the far-right's fear mongering and racist agenda.”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.