JACL Condemns Newly Announced Immigration Restrictions

Earlier today, the Biden Administration issued an executive order imposing new restrictions on asylum seekers and migrants at the Southern border. These restrictions impose a daily limit for what are considered “illegal” border crossings. Anyone who crosses after this limit is reached asylum seekers entering at an unsecured port of entry would be deported and become permanently ineligible to seek asylum. This is not the reform we nor potential immigrants deserve.

These proposed new policies give in to the worst of our nation’s xenophobic tendencies. Immigration policies throughout history have targeted immigrants from non-European countries, most notoriously with the Chinese Exclusion Act. Recent rhetoric has clearly highlighted false fears of Chinese espionage and the influx of drugs accompanying a so-called invasion of people coming across the border. We cannot allow these xenophobic and racist ideologies to shape our immigration policy. 

JACL strongly urges the Biden Administration and Congress to pursue humane and equitable solutions to manage migration effectively, rather than releasing incomplete and problematic half-measures focused on refusal and expulsion. Men, women, and children seeking asylum at the Southern border deserve to have their stories heard and cases considered, not to be turned away due to arbitrary numeric limits. 

President Biden once promised that we would “restore our moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers, and those fleeing violence and persecution.” Today’s policy falls far short of this promise.