Tucson, AZ – The Florence Project is disappointed that a court has granted the Biden administration’s request to halt a court order that would have restored access to asylum in the United States. Title 42 is a Trump-era policy that uses the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to summarily block people from seeking protection in the U.S. After a district court ruled that Title 42 could not be applied to asylum-seeking families, the Biden administration appealed that decision. Yesterday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals not only granted the Biden administration’s request to stay the lower court’s order, but it also denied immigrant rights’ groups and other experts such as medical professionals the ability to file supporting briefs opposing the stay.
As frustrating and disappointing as this ruling is, it is even more troubling that the Biden administration chose to appeal the original decision in the first place. With each passing day, the continued use of Title 42 is a stain on the Biden administration, particularly in the face of a mountain of evidence that there is no legitimate public health justification for the policy.
People we meet on the Arizona-Sonora border tell us every day that Title 42 puts them in extremely dangerous situations. This policy has real human consequences. In the first seven months of the Biden administration alone, human rights advocates documented over 6,300 kidnappings, rapes, and other violent assaults against people seeking asylum who were returned to Mexico. Every day, people seeking asylum in Sonora report to Florence Project staff that they are desperate, both because of the dangers to their physical safety but also because these harmful border policies force them to live in abject conditions.
Just last weekend, hundreds of migrant families marched peacefully in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico to protest this very policy, and in response, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents shut the port of entry entirely, an unnecessary and unwarranted escalation of the situation in response to a peaceful protest.
“The migrants I speak with every day want to abide by a safe, orderly asylum process,” said Chelsea Sachau, a Florence Project Border Action Team attorney. “However, despite campaign promises to the contrary, the Biden administration has failed to give them one, even after nine months in office. In fact, they are fighting tooth and nail to defend this indefensible, Trump-era policy and as a result, to prolong the tremendous human suffering it causes. We can welcome asylum seekers safely and with dignity – the Biden administration is choosing not to at every single opportunity.”
We stand with migrant leaders and partner organizations in calling on the Biden administration to immediately drop this appeal, end Title 42, and refocus its efforts on a return to a swift, fair, and humane policy at the border.