Use your voice for change: Stand with asylum seekers

A Honduran mother experiencing gender-based violence while she and her disabled daughter seek asylum... A young father fleeing political persecution in Venezuela to only be denied entry when seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border... A 38-year Honduran woman suffering from PTSD symptoms after being sexually assaulted by federal police officers in Mexico. These are three real people whom HIAS is directly working with...

We are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, and it’s leaving asylum seekers like these to fend for themselves in situations that are downright dangerous, often in conditions that are unspeakably cruel. Our broken immigration system punishes vulnerable people through legal restrictions intended to be confusing, making it increasingly difficult for them to exercise their right to seek safety in the United States.

These failing federal policies have real consequences for real people. 

But you can use your voice today to demand change: Urge your members of Congress to uphold the rights of asylum seekers by implementing policies that meet the needs of the people seeking safety and the needs of our nation. 

Things have to change, and soon. The longer the U.S. continues enforcing these failing federal policies, the longer that people at the border will suffer.

Asylum seekers are real people who are fleeing from their homes in a search for safety and security, but our current policies can leave them stranded at the border for indefinite lengths of time, leaving them vulnerable to torture, kidnapping, sexual assault, extortion, and other attacks. 

For years, the U.S. has enacted policies that intentionally try to punish people for seeking asylum at the border — but these policies do not ultimately affect the number of people who are seeking safety. All these ineffective policies do is build onto the dysfunction at the border while asylum seekers wait for their chance to enter the country. 

Please, take two minutes today to ask your elected representatives to enact border policies that uphold the rights of asylum seekers.

Congress can create meaningful change that will better support asylum seekers and make our borders more secure, including advancing policies that:

1) Support border infrastructure: We need more resources to help process asylum seekers at our ports of entry. With dependable and fair access to ports of entry, fewer individuals are forced to cross between our nation’s ports of entry as they seek safety from persecution and life-threatening conditions in Mexico. 
2) Let asylum seekers work: The current waiting period is 180 days which places undue burdens on the communities receiving asylum seekers and denies the basic dignity to the noncitizens who are trying to rebuild their lives. 
3) Advance lawful pathways: Support the solutions that provide alternative options to Western Hemisphere migrants who could otherwise depend on criminal organizations for information and migration options.

Friend, I hope I can count on you today to take action by contacting your members of Congress to demand that we uphold the rights of asylum seekers.

Thank you for your compassion.

Rebecca Kirzner 
Senior Director, Grassroots Organizing & Advocacy