Executive Order Would Drastically Limit Asylum, Unfairly Reduce Number of People Who Can Legally Seek Asylum in America

“It is extremely disappointing that this White House would choose to double down on the previous Administration’s harmful and flawed immigration policies.”

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Co-Chair of the House Haiti Caucus, joined her colleagues and a coalition of the nation’s leading immigrant rights advocates at a press conference to denounce the Biden Administration’s new executive action that would drastically limit asylum by unfairly reducing the number of people who can legally seek asylum in our country.

In her remarks, Rep. Pressley urged President Biden to reverse course and instead work with Congress to build a just immigration system that affirms asylum as a human right and respects the dignity and humanity of all people – including by investing more resources to address the asylum backlog and help Massachusetts support new arrivals; reforming American foreign policy that has destabilized countries like Haiti and those in Latin America; expanding legal pathways; and taking a comprehensive approach to immigration reform.

A full transcript of the Congresswoman’s remarks is below, and full video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley, Colleagues, Advocates Denounce New Anti-Asylum Executive Order
U.S. Capitol
June 4, 2024

Good afternoon, everyone.

It’s wonderful to be here with movement family, justice seekers. Grateful to Congressman Casar for convening this and bringing this all together during this deeply painful and consequential inflection point.

Thank you all for being here today, although I wish you didn’t have to be.

As I’ve said so many times before I look forward to a day where people do not have to relive or weaponize their trauma in order to compel action from their government.

It is a shame that we have to gather here today, once again, to put the Administration on notice and remind them who it is that they are accountable to.

With all due respect Mr. President, we should not be unearthing policies of the last Administration.

A diverse, multi-generational, and multi-cultural coalition who organized and mobilized their communities to reject the cruelty that defined the prior administration and deliver us the White House, demands that we do better.

It is incumbent upon all of us that we not only advance policies that affirm immigrants’ rights as [the] human rights that they are, but also push back against any harmful proposals that deny migrant families the compassion, dignity, and fairness they deserve.

That is why we’re here today.

To reject this anti-asylum executive action.

For too long, we have let Republicans demonize our immigrant neighbors and set the frame for our public discourse.

They have used anti-immigrant rhetoric and a scarcity mindset to push deeply harmful, xenophobic policies that treat people as pawns and deny them their basic dignity and humanity.

And that is why it is extremely disappointing that this White House would choose to double down on the previous Administration’s harmful and flawed immigration policies.

Policies that would gut the asylum process, deny immigrants their due process, and put vulnerable families back in harm’s way – especially Black, brown and Indigenous migrants.

It’s long past time we build an immigration system that centers compassion, dignity, and fairness – not cruelty, callousness, and criminalization.

And before they try to tell us that we’re not being realistic – because they like to tell us that – or that we simply don’t have the resources to meet the needs of our new arrivals.

I’ll remind them that there is no deficit of resource in this country. There is only a deficit of empathy. A deficit of prioritization.

We can invest the resources necessary to address the asylum backlog and help states like Massachusetts support our new arrivals. 

Si se puede.

We can expand legal pathways and reform our foreign policy that has been rooted in colonialism and destabilized countries like Haiti and those in Central America.

Si se puede. Yes we can.

And we can and we must take a comprehensive, holistic, and effective approach to immigration reform.

For our Dreamers. For our TPS holders. For our asylum seekers. For our unaccompanied minors and for every person that comes to the United States in hopes of contributing to our nation and building a future for themselves and our loved ones.

Listen, I know. Congress’s failure to act limits the tools of the executive branch. That is clear.

But this action, this action falls short of our goal of just and fair immigration policy.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: asylum is a human right, and immigrants are people, not pawns.

And a wise friend recently reminded me that immigrants are neither villains nor victims.

They are people with talents, gifts, hopes and dreams, with homes and families.

People who go to school to learn, who work to provide.

They make our communities stronger, our economy more vibrant, and they deserve to live with dignity.

We must lead with compassion – not cruelty.

I urge the White House to immediately reverse course and work with us to build a just immigration system that affirms asylum as a human right and respects the dignity and humanity of all people.

###