Biden Announcement on Regional Migration Brings Benefits and Disappointments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Thursday, April 27, 2023  

Media Contact: media@theyoungcenter.org 

Washington D.C.— Today the Biden administration announced new plans to manage migration at the southern border. The Young Center welcomes the expansion of refugee resettlement numbers from Latin America and the Carribean and the planned expansion of family reunification parole pathways for people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia. Such expansions are long overdue. We are concerned, however, that these developments come at the expense of the right to seek asylum at our southern border.  

Mary Miler Flowers, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said: 

“We urge the administration to walk back plans to restrict people’s access to asylum based on their manner of reaching the border or on their ability to obtain an appointment via the CBP One phone app which is riddled with problems. The United States must uphold its legal and moral obligations to allow people fleeing violence to request asylum at our borders, regardless of their manner of transit or their ability to obtain an appointment in advance. These misguided changes are coupled with new enforcement measures and expedited procedures which will deny due process and force individual adults, families and children back into dangerous situations.  While unaccompanied children will be exempted from these restrictions, they will also suffer many consequences from these policies. Just as we witnessed under Title 42, children arriving with their families will most likely be forced to separate to seek protection or be sent back to the very dangers they fled. And numerous children traveling with their families will be deported to danger. We can and must do better.” 

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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a non-profit organization that protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children and advocates for an immigration system that treats children as children first. For press inquiries, please contact Anabel Mendoza at media@theyoungcenter.org