Washington, D.C.—Church World Service today applauded the Biden administration for beginning to reverse the anti-asylum, anti-immigrant policies by the previous administration. Today’s changes came in a series of executive orders reaffirming bold leadership in welcoming immigrant families and asylum seekers by establishing a family reunification task force, addressing barriers to legal immigration and confronting root causes of regional migration.
CWS calls on the Biden administration to reverse all anti-asylum policies, including by overturning the public charge policy, which is now under review, terminating Title 42 expulsions and the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), and to urgently suspend deportation flights, especially for Black immigrants who may have been denied a full and fair opportunity to seek asylum in the United States and would experience extreme hardship if returned.
“Step by step the Biden administration is returning the United States to its role as a nation of welcome. Seeking asylum is legal, granting asylum is moral, it’s time these facts are reflected by our immigration policy. No family should be separated, now or in the future, because of misguided policies,” said Rick Santos, President and CEO of Church World Service. “These executive actions are an important first step—but the administration cannot stop here. The United States should make it our priority to fully strengthen family immigration and further address the causes of forced migration immediately.”
Today’s executive action will re-establish a Task Force on New Americans to facilitate immigrant integration, restore the Central American Minors (CAM) program to protect children fleeing violence in Central America, and review the previous administration’s discriminatory public charge rule.
Church World Service calls on the Biden administration and Congress to work together to end the immoral criminal prosecutions for migration offenses, end immigrant detention and deportations, and introduce and pass the Refugee Protection Act.
For more information, contact media@cwsglobal.org.