Tell President Biden No to Immigrant Family Detention and Asylum Ban
The Biden Administration’s announcement of the upcoming, “asylum ban,” and the disturbing news that the administration is considering detaining immigrant families at the border is inhumane and immoral.
We must demand that the administration abandon ineffective and deadly deterrence policies and restore the right to asylum.
Join us for a webinar, “In Defense of Asylum”, hosted by a number of our partners in the work of immigration advocacy, on Monday, March 20th, 2023 at 3pm EST. Register in advance here.
Join us to listen to impacted asylum seekers at the border and make a collective call to Congress for a change in Biden’s asylum policy trajectory.
We also ask that you consider signing on to our letter to the Biden Administration, requesting that they come up with other solutions rather than implementing the asylum ban and detaining as well as separating families.
The final date of signing on is March 31, 2023.
Complete the form below the letter to sign on.
March X, 2023
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Biden:
We write to you to express our grave concern regarding the possibility of your administration reinstating family detention and an asylum ban, deadly and inhumane practices of your predecessor that you once criticized and campaigned against. To detain children and their parents is an unacceptable and cruel approach to receiving families seeking protection from harm, hoping to reunite with relatives in the US, or wanting a better life.
We write to you from the United Methodist community, a faith tradition rich with stories and experiences of migration, sojourning, and offering hospitality to the foreigner in our midst. As stated in our Church’s Social Principles and Resolutions, we believe in the dignity and worth of all human beings regardless of country of origin. Furthermore, we believe in keeping families together and the right to seeking asylum (¶162 H, Social Principles). To intentionally take that away through your administration’s policies is to ignore the needs of the most vulnerable in our world and commit a grave sin.
As members of the United Methodist Church, we stand with asylum seekers and families as they seek security and protection from violence and danger. The teachings of Jesus Christ and the Bible inform our position and our advocacy for a better way forward. We believe that your administration has the capacity and compassion to ensure the safety of those at risk of harm in our hemisphere and our world.
We challenge this administration just as the ancient prophets challenged kingdoms and empires to operate under a different kind of power, not one that breaks families up or that subjects the most vulnerable among us to more violence. Rather, we call on your administration to operate under the principles and power of empathy, competence, and accountability not only to U.S. citizens but to the world’s most vulnerable. Our ancient texts and stories tell us that there is great strength in hospitality rather than in hostility. Therefore, we call on your administration to be courageous and consider hospitality.
In the Spirit of Justice and Mercy,
