A proposed Republican “border security” plan, now stalled in the U.S. House, is so extreme that even some members of the party, namely Miami-Dade’s Maria Elvira Salazar, have denounced it, saying it jeopardized the U.S. asylum laws and the very idea of this nation opening its arms to those escaping for humanitarian reason.
Currently, refugee status or asylum may be granted to people who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.
Thankfully, HR 29 will not be up for a vote anytime soon and back in committee. We credit the outspokenness and push back of some Republicans, including Salazar, whose district for decades has been an entry point for those escaping for a better life in America.
She knows what such a restriction means, and we commend her for speaking up against this bill when other Republican congressional members from South Florida did not.
Overall, we agree that our immigration laws need reforming, but the bill’s author, a Republican congressman from Texas, Chip Roy, seeks to grant the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the power to prohibit the entry of migrants at any point of entry into the country, including those from Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela, all trouble spots crushed by political oppression, political chaos and violence, or autocratic leadership.
If passed and sent to the Senate, this bill would mean those asylum seekers with credible claims would not even have a chance to tell their stories to an immigration agent before being turned away.
The rationale seems to be is that if you don’t hear their claims, you don’t have to act on them, and this bill promotes that idea as standard practice. In other words, hear no evil, and send them back.
But that’s not how America should work. Salazar, the daughter of Cuban refugees, who fled the island to escape communism, knows this firsthand.
Recently, citing the high number of refugees, Homeland Security is, in fact, turning away immigrants reaching the U.S.-Mexico border and at sea without hearing their asylum claims. This bill would codify the refusal to listen to claims.
We agree with Salazar that this bill goes too far, and she and fellow Republican congressman Tony Gonzales, of Texas, say the bill undermines asylum laws.
Kudos to both of them for standing up to their fellow Republicans in the name of the oppressed.
