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This week, the Biden administration announced that it would take steps to allow additional asylum seekers to come back to the U.S. to safety after they were subjected to the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). This decision will help thousands of immigrants who were forced to remain in Mexico while waiting for their U.S. asylum cases to be heard.
This week, the Biden administration announced that it would take steps to allow additional asylum seekers to come back to the U.S. to safety after they were subjected to the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). This decision will help thousands of immigrants who were forced to remain in Mexico while waiting for their U.S. asylum cases to be heard.
Members of the Welcome With Dignity Campaign applaud this step to unwind the Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' policy but are advocating for the Biden administration to swiftly end other cruel policies of the former administration, including mass expulsions of asylum seekers to danger under Title 42.
"This is an important step in addressing the harms of this unlawful policy that deprived tens of thousands of people an opportunity to seek safety,'' said Denise Bell, Researcher for Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International USA. "We urge the administration to continue to restore access to asylum at the border by rescinding the public health quarantine under Title 42, which is not grounded in science, unlawful, and endangers people seeking safety, just as the Migrant Protection Protocols did, by sending them back into harm's way."
"This is an important step by the Biden administration to provide access to asylum for MPP victims who were unable to attend hearings in this flawed process, in many cases due to acute dangers, kidnappings or other impediments," said Eleanor Acer, Senior Director of Refugee Protection at Human Rights First. "The administration must also quickly move ahead to provide access to safety for MPP victims who were denied asylum under this rigged program. MPP proceedings were plagued by due process violations, barriers to legal representation and wrongful denials due to now rescinded Trump administration policies."
"At issue is our collective humanity as a nation and whether we are going to do right by the children and families the Trump administration has wronged. Providing asylum for MPP victims denied justice at our border is a step in the right direction," said Paola Luisi, Director of Families Belong Together. "But, we cannot stop here. We need the Biden administration to move forward with ending Title 42 - a racist, dangerous, and cruel Trump-era policy - which has been weaponized to send people seeking safety back to danger. We urge the Biden administration to end Title 42 for all and restore asylum fully to create an immigration system that welcomes people with dignity and respect."
"Allowing those subject to the unlawful and cruel MPP program to have a second chance at seeking asylum, especially if they never got their first chance because they were in a kidnapper's den, is the right thing to do," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Counsel at the American Immigration Council. "Fixing the previous administration's cruelty at the border means more than just rolling back anti-asylum policies, it also requires giving people a second chance."
"We welcome the decision by the Biden-Harris administration to do the right thing and provide access for the men, women and children who were previously denied access by the cruel and racist Trump's MPP policy," said Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. "We also urge the Administration to immediately end the use of Title 42, a draconian rule and a death trap for asylum seekers fleeing extreme danger. Furthermore we urge the Administration to provide protection for extremely vulnerable black asylum seekers and others not in MPP who have been waiting at the U.S-Mexico border and welcome all people with dignity"
"On asylum, it is so important that we get it right because asylum can be a matter of life and death," said Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for America's Voice. "While not everyone will or should be granted asylum, every asylum seeker should have a full and fair opportunity to make their case. MPP - or Remain in Mexico - was designed to ensure that people could not have access to a fair hearing and was the essential component of Stephen Miller's plan to gut asylum. As he infamously stated in 2019, 'My mantra has persistently been presenting aliens with multiple unsolvable dilemmas to impact their calculus for choosing to make the arduous journey to begin with.' Yet clearly, no matter how cruel or draconian the strategy, deterrence did not work."
"So many asylum seekers in the Remain in Mexico program who have been waiting in danger for a true chance to seek protection will finally get to do so," said Yael Schacher, Senior U.S. Advocate at Refugees International. "We urge the administration to ensure that those who register are allowed to enter the United States and have support pursuing their cases. The administration must also create pathways to protection for others denied due process in the MPP program and must stop expelling asylum seekers via Title 42 to the very same dangers those in MPP faced. This is a great step towards restoring welcome at the border and Refugees International calls on the administration to continue building a better asylum system."
"This move marks important progress towards rebuilding our asylum system and redressing the profound harm caused by MPP. This Trump-era program was a human rights and due process disaster, and it flew in the face of our legal and moral obligations to refugees," said Karen Musalo, Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS). "In the legal challenges CGRS brought against MPP, multiple federal courts ruled the policy unlawful. All who suffered under this cruel and illegal policy should have a fair chance to seek refuge in the United States."
"For over two years our clients have been trapped in limbo holding on to hope that this day would come. These clients have faced incredible obstacles, including surviving a pandemic and on-going threats to their safety while in Mexico. Finally welcoming asylum seekers who were in the Remain in Mexico program into the U.S. while they continue their cases will save lives," said Joyce Noche, Director of Legal Services at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. "We call for due process to be restored for individuals and families whose cases were fast tracked through a system designed for them to fail, whose cases were kidnapped or sick, and unaccompanied kids previously in MPP who still face deportation because of this cruel program. Additionally, we urge the Biden administration to continue the momentum of restoring the asylum system by ending the implementation of Title 42 in order to truly welcome asylum seekers and refugees with dignity."
"We are relieved and very thankful that the Biden Administration continues to take important steps towards processing more people and families into the U.S. who have been inhumanely trapped in MPP. The U.S. must never forget the horrors done in its name through the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico policy, and today is a stride to heal the injustices it caused to more than 70,000 people and their families," said Todd Schulte, President and Executive Director of FWD.us. "The notice to Congress finally gives an estimated 34,000 more people seeking asylum and children fleeing violence and persecution the opportunity to access legal humanitarian relief from within the U.S., leaving behind the horrors of conflict, natural disasters and famine. Efforts to protect the populations most harmed by the Trump Administration's immigration policies should not be confined to those impacted by MPP. If the Biden Administration wants to remain true to their promise of building a safe, orderly, and humane asylum system for all who are impacted, it must urgently end Title 42. The impacts of Title 42 amount to the same harm and lack of access to justice as MPP, and both have acutely impacted Black people seeking asylum from Haiti, Brazil, and elsewhere."
"This is an important step toward welcoming more people and families into the United States who have been inhumanely and immorally trapped by MPP," said Meredith Owen, Director of Policy and Advocacy for Church World Service. "We commend the Biden administration for moving into the next phase in winding down the unlawful Remain in Mexico policy and giving approximately 34,000 more asylum seekers a chance to reach safety. As we confront the worst displacement crisis on record with more than 82 million people forced from their homes worldwide, the United States has a moral and legal obligation to redress the harm caused by anti-asylum policies. We call on the administration to significantly expand eligibility for everyone impacted by MPP--including those who crossed into the United States in-between ports of entry-- to provide a remedy for all asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, and immigrants impacted by MPP, and to urgently terminate Title 42 expulsions to prevent the fatal consequences of returning people to harm. We are ready to work with the administration and our member communities to serve asylum seekers and immigrants in need of humanitarian assistance."
"MPP was a shameful, inhumane, and unlawful policy that created a process so stacked against asylum seekers that the only fair way for the Biden administration to unwind it is to give everyone subjected to it a fair opportunity to pursue their claims safely from within the United States," said Ursela Ojeda, policy advisor for the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women's Refugee Commission. "We welcome today's announcement to wind down MPP. We call on the Biden administration to continue expanding access to protection and ensure that every last person subjected to MPP is afforded an opportunity to enter the United States and safely apply for asylum. We further call on the administration to stop blocking and expelling people seeking protection at the border under the false pretense of protecting public health and immediately and fully restore access to asylum."
"We are thrilled by the news that the Biden administration is expanding eligibility for more than 30,000 families and individuals who were previously forced to wait in dangerous Mexican cities under the unconscionable Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy," said Santiago Mueckay, Manager Federal Government Relations, Save the Children Action Network. "This is an important step in the fight for justice. The administration must now focus on rescinding inhumane and unnecessary pandemic-related border restrictions, ensuring everyone has the ability to seek asylum in the US. We look forward to continuing to work with the Biden administration and relevant international aid agencies to ensure this is a smooth process during which the rights of children and families are protected."
"This is big news for the immigrants forced to live a life of fear and uncertainty as they navigate complicated U.S. asylum policies. The previous U.S. administration tried to block asylum cases with various hardline policies, and it didn't work - it also made the lives of these vulnerable immigrants seeking safety at our border worse," said Basma Alawee, We Are All America campaign manager. "This new decision is a sign that the Biden administration is more willing to base U.S. asylum policies in compassion and reality, and this change will make a difference in the lives of the many immigrants unfairly forced from attending the hearings that could decide their fate in this country. This is a welcome move, and we hope it is the first in many changes to U.S. immigration policies to come."
"Righting the terribly wrong asylum and immigration policies the Trump administration imposed is a high priority for America's moms," said Donna Norton, Executive Vice President of MomsRising. "We applaud the Biden-Harris administration's decision to give migrants who were detained and endangered in Mexico a fair day in court. But more is needed. We also need to end Title 42 and reconsider all asylum cases that were unfairly denied. America's moms want every asylum-seeker and every immigrant to be treated with compassion, dignity and respect."
"Despite its Orwellian name, this policy's purpose was never to protect migrants. It was to deport everyone, regardless of whether they qualified for protection under asylum law," said Stephen Manning, Executive Director of Innovation Law Lab. "Remain in Mexico was very effective at undermining due process, depriving asylum seekers of access to basic human needs, and confining people to extreme danger zones, where many were kidnapped, tortured, and even murdered. Phase II processing is a step in the right direction, but the government has still failed to provide justice for the over 71,000 individuals subjected to the policy."
"This is a positive step towards bringing justice to the tens of thousands who were wrongly denied access to asylum. Asylum seekers who weren't able to be present for their hearings because they were forced to wait in danger in Mexico-- or worse, returned to the same dangers they were fleeing--deserve another chance to make their claim," said Daniella Burgi-Palomino, Co-director of the Latin America Working Group. "We urge the Biden administration to work closely with civil society organizations on both sides of the border to make sure people in Mexico and in their home countries wrongly denied their rights have the information necessary to pursue their claims. The White House should also end the harmful Title 42 policy to ensure access to asylum is restored at our border and that we truly welcome those fleeing for their lives."
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
(212) 807-8400"Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or healthcare, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing."
"It's becoming nearly impossible for working-class people to buy and keep a roof over their heads. Congress must respond with a plan that matches the scale of this crisis."
That's according to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who on Wednesday introduced the Homes Act in a New York Timesopinion piece and an event with supporters of the proposal on Capitol Hill.
"Because we believe that housing is a human right, like food or healthcare, we believe that more Americans deserve the option of social housing," the pair wrote in the Times. "That's why we're introducing the Homes Act, a plan to establish a new, federally backed development authority to finance and build homes in big cities and small towns across America. These homes would be built to last by union workers and then turned over to entities that agree to manage them for permanent affordability: public and tribal housing authorities, cooperatives, tenant unions, community land trusts, nonprofits, and local governments."
"Our housing development authority wouldn't be focused on maximizing profit or returns to shareholders," the congresswomen continued. "Rent would be capped at 25% of a household's adjusted annual gross income. Homes would be set aside for lower-income families in mixed-income buildings and communities. And every home would be built to modern, efficient standards, which would cut residents' utility costs. Renters wouldn't have to worry about the prospect of a big corporation buying up the building and evicting everyone. Some could even come together to purchase their buildings outright."
In addition to establishing the new authority under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the bill would repeal the Faircloth Amendment, which prevents the use of federal money for building new public homes. Under the new plan, construction would be funded by congressional spending and Treasury-backed loans.
"In New York, the average worker would need to clock in 104 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. "This country is staring down a full-blown housing crisis. A crisis where affordable housing is slipping out of reach."
"This bill would create more than 500,000 jobs and create 1.25 million affordable housing units," she noted, declaring that "everyone deserves a place to call home."
It's not just New York City where lower-wage people are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Smith pointed out that "more than 90% of workers cannot afford a modest one-bedroom apartment. Americans across the country are bidding for homes against the wealthiest financial firms and they're losing."
"We have a severe housing crisis," she stressed. "The private market cannot meet this moment on its own. The Homes Act meets peoples' needs through social housing."
As Jacobin's Samuel Stein wrote Wednesday:
The housing system sketched out in the Homes Act looks nothing like what we are used to in the United States. Though we have an important social housing legacy, we have never normalized decommodification as the cornerstone of our housing system.
Introducing legislation like the Homes Act does not accomplish that goal in and of itself, but it offers us a concrete depiction of what that transition could look like. It also highlights the severe disjuncture between what our housing and urban planning system does right now—promote private profits in real estate while minimizing the public provision of housing—and what we need it to do.
The goal of legislation like this is not to pass it immediately, since no sober person would expect the current U.S. Congress to line up in support. Nor is the goal to supplant the messy work of organizing with the schematic and technical language of legislation. Instead, the point is to inspire organizing: to show that the status quo is not the only way our housing could operate, to give tenant organizations a concrete and affirmative vision to build toward, and to offer socialist candidates for office a platform to run on.
The bill to create a social housing authority—introduced less than two months out from the U.S. general election—is backed by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and its affiliates from across the country.
"Working families are being forced to make sacrifices in order to pay the skyrocketing cost of keeping a roof over their heads, while corporate landlords and Wall Street executives are getting even richer," said CPD co-executive directors Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper. "This legislation provides a clear alternative to for-profit housing. It creates a framework to make community-owned, permanently affordable green social housing a reality."
Advocates from both sponsors' states also spoke out in favor of the bill.
"In Greater Minnesota, counties and towns don't have staff to build affordable housing projects, financing is another huge issue. We don’t have as many philanthropic organizations or financial institutions as urban areas," explained Noah Hobbs, policy director at One Roof Community Housing in Duluth. "This bill is the first real investment we've had in years. We're incredibly proud to endorse this legislation."
Aisha Hernandez, secretary of the Coalition to Save Affordable Housing at Co-op City in the Bronx, said that "cooperative housing gave me the ability to co-own my home. A few years ago, my neighbors and I came together to ensure our housing stays affordable, that our management is working in the interest of homeowners and prevent any corporate takeover of Co-op City."
"We are co-owners, not at the whims of corporate landlords," Hernandez added. "I want my fellow Americans to have the same access to housing that co-op has afforded me. This bill has the ability to do that. So let's get it done."
"This research provides a view into just how embedded the corporate, profit-fueled war machine is in our higher education and cultural institutions," said one campaigner.
A trio of human rights groups on Wednesday announced a new interactive initiative exposing what the coalition is calling a "Genocide Gentry" of weapons company executives and board members and "54 museums, cultural organizations, universities, and colleges that currently host these individuals on their boards or in other prominent roles."
The coalition—which consists of the Adalah Justice Project, LittleSis, and Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE)—published a map and database detailing the "educational and cultural ties to board members of six defense corporations" amid Israel's ongoing annihilation of Gaza, for which the U.S.-backed country is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
" Israel has destroyed every university in Gaza and nearly 200 cultural heritage sites since October 2023, using bombs and weapons manufactured by the companies included in the Genocide Gentry research," the coalition said. "As of April, these attacks have killed more than 5,479 students and 261 teachers and destroyed or critically damaged nearly 90% of all school buildings in Gaza."
"Universities across the country including the likes of Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Southern California, and New York University have remained largely silent on Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza," the groups added. "Behind closed doors, these same universities are hosting executives and board members of the companies manufacturing the weapons used in these attacks as board members, trustees, and fellows."
Members of the Genocide Gentry include:
"Students on university campuses across the country have not only been demanding divestment, but transparency," said Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project. "Transparency about their institutions' investments, partnerships, donors, and decision-makers, and their connections to individuals and companies directly enabling and profiting off war and genocide."
"This research helps provide some of this transparency by illuminating just how embedded the interests of the weapons industry are within our institutions, so we can begin chipping away at the power and influence that they wield," she added.
ACRE campaign director Ramah Kudaimi noted that "as part of its genocide since October 2023, Israel has targeted universities and cultural centers across Gaza, destroying campuses, museums, libraries, and more."
"That this is all backed by the United States means U.S. educational and cultural institutions have a responsibility to consider what their role is in helping end these war crimes, and that starts with reconsidering their connections with the weapons companies profiting from the destruction," Kudaimi said.
Munira Lokhandwala, director of the Tech and Training program at LittleSis, said: "This research provides a view into just how embedded the corporate, profit-fueled war machine is in our higher education and cultural institutions. Through this research, we show how the defense industry shapes and influences our civic and cultural institutions, and as a result, their silence around war and genocide."
"We must ask our institutions: What role are you playing in whitewashing war and destruction by inviting those who profit from manufacturing weapons onto your boards and into your galas?" she added.
"The Fed must continue to cut rates aggressively in the coming months to prevent a slowing labor market and provide much-needed relief to people who are bearing the brunt of high interest rates," said one economist.
Economists and working-class people across the United States on Wednesday welcomed the Federal Reserve's decision to cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point as an incredibly overdue and necessary move.
In line with signals from Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech last month, the Federal Open Market Committee lowered the federal funds rate by half a percentage point to 4.74-5%, the first cut "since March 2020 when Covid-19 was hammering the economy," as The Associated Pressnoted. Additional cuts are expected over the next two years.
"Finally," wrote Kenny Stancil, a senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and former Common Dreams staff writer, in a blog post. "The Fed should have provided interest rate relief months ago. While this overdue move is welcome, we must reiterate that Powell's deferral of interest rate cuts has hurt the clean energy transition and inflicted other economic harms."
Lawmakers and experts, including Groundwork Collaborative chief economist Rakeen Mabud, have long called for rate cuts and highlighted the harms of refusing to pursue them.
"Today's rate cut is a step in the right direction, but only a first step," said Mabud in a statement Wednesday. "The Fed must continue to cut rates aggressively in the coming months to prevent a slowing labor market and provide much-needed relief to people who are bearing the brunt of high interest rates."
Center for Economic and Policy Research senior economist Dean Baker also welcomed that the Fed is changing course, saying: "This is a belated recognition that the battle against inflation has been won. Contrary to the predictions of almost all economists, including those at the Fed, this victory was won without a major uptick in unemployment."
"Unfortunately, the Fed waited too long to make this turn," Baker continued. "As a result, the unemployment rate has drifted higher. While there is little basis for concerns about a recession, if the unemployment rate is 0.5 percentage points higher than it needs to be, that translates into 800,000 people out of work who want jobs."
"It is good that the Fed has now recognized the weakening of the labor market and responded with an aggressive cut," he added. "Given there is almost no risk of rekindling inflation, the greater boost to the labor market is largely costless. Also, it will help to spur the housing market where millions of people have put off selling homes because of high mortgage rates."
Liz Zelnick of Accountable.US similarly stressed the benefits, saying that "while it should have come sooner, the Fed's interest rate cut will ease some burden for many Americans that found it simply too expensive to buy new homes or cars."
"Fortunately, the Fed's aggressive interest rate strategy defied odds and did not spur a recession as the economy continues to grow hundreds of thousands of jobs every month while wages are rising," she said. "Persistently high interest rates were never going to get at the root of the corporate price gouging epidemic that has needlessly kept prices high on many necessities—a problem that is on Congress to fix."
Some members of Congress who have been pushing for rate cuts also applauded the belated action—including Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), chair of the Joint Economic Committee.
"Let's be clear: Today's decision is a big win for families across the country," he declared. "Lower rates mean that more families will be able to buy a home or a car without high interest payments looming over them, and their credit card bills will go down."
"But there is still work to be done," he said. "I will continue to work with my colleagues to fight for policies that raise wages, strengthen our economy, create new jobs, and lower prices for families in New Mexico and across the country."
Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, has also criticized the central bank's refusal to cut rates and praised the Wednesday reversal.
"We've made significant progress on inflation, but House Democrats know there is more to be done to bring down the cost of everyday goods and take on corporate price gouging," Boyle said, nodding to the November election in which former Republican President Donald Trump is facing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
"While House Republicans continue trying to inflict higher costs and higher taxes on the middle class with Trump's Project 2025 agenda," he added, "House Democrats will never stop fighting to deliver an economy that works for working families."
Harris similarly applauded the "welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices" while acknowledging that more must be done and vowing that "my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down."
"I know prices are still too high for many middle-class and working families, and my top priority as president will be to lower the costs of everyday needs like healthcare, housing, and groceries. That is why I am proposing plans to cut taxes for more than 100 million working and middle-class Americans, pass the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on food and groceries, and make housing more affordable by building 3 million new homes and giving more Americans down payment assistance," she said.
The Democrat also took aim at Trump's intentions, warning that "while proposing more tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, his plan would increase costs on families by nearly $4,000 a year by slapping a Trump Tax on goods families rely on, like gas, food, and clothing. He wants to repeal the law I cast the tie-breaking vote to pass that caps the costs of prescription drugs for seniors, including insulin at $35. He would end the Affordable Care Act and erase the progress we have made to lower premiums for millions of Americans by hundreds of dollars a year."
"Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists say his plan would increase inflation, and a Moody's report found it would cause a recession by the middle of next year," she noted. "This election is about whether we are going to finally build an opportunity economy that gives every American a shot not just to get by, but to get ahead. As president, that will be my priority every day."