Entre Hermanos Statement: June 4 Executive Order Restricting Access to Asylum
Date Posted: June 5, 2024
Categories:
NEW RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Seattle, Washington
June 5th, 2024
Contact: Robert Foss
Title: Director of Legal Services
Email: robert@entrehermanos.org
The executive order of June 4 restricting entry and suspending access to asylum has serious ramifications for the Latinx LGBTQ+ community. It is disappointing that at the very beginning of our community’s celebration of pride, we are faced with new barriers to justice.
So many members of our community have suffered persecution, violence, and assassination simply because of who they are and who they love. These new restrictions on asylum will directly increase the number of deaths for LGBTQ refugees, both in their home countries and in the border regions. Transwomen in particular are subjected to astonishingly vicious levels of hate and violence, demonstrated by the ongoing death toll in many of our neighboring countries. The executive order does not reflect the most basic of human rights—the right to live and love. The members of our community deserve safety, refuge, and respect as they seek to simply be who they are.
We urge the Biden Administration to implement policy which is in line with the human rights of our Latinx siblings and with the humanitarian values which should inform our immigration policies. We call for an asylum system consistent with both justice and our international obligations which recognizes the plight of all refugees, especially in the LGBTQ+ community. We must process many more cases of refugee status for our community through our embassies and consular offices worldwide. We must simplify and uphold due process for all asylum seekers both at the border and in our immigration courts. In the end, we must approve many more cases.
Entre Hermanos has firsthand knowledge of the suffering of asylum seekers. We also know the richness, beauty, and joy which they bring to us. We stand with the newly arrived in this month of pride, knowing that our own struggle for justice is far from complete.
Robert Foss
Entre Hermanos Director of Legal Services