September, 20 2021, 03:25pm EDT
The White House Can and Should Do More to Welcome Refugees
Responding to President Biden's reported proposed presidential determination to admit up to 125,000 refugees this fiscal year amid the horrific treatment of Haitian asylum-seekers at the border, Paul O'Brien, the executive director of Amnesty International USA said:
WASHINGTON
Responding to President Biden's reported proposed presidential determination to admit up to 125,000 refugees this fiscal year amid the horrific treatment of Haitian asylum-seekers at the border, Paul O'Brien, the executive director of Amnesty International USA said:
"Communities across the United States are ready to welcome their new neighbors, yet the White House continues to lag behind those eager to make this country their new home. At a time when thousands of Afghans have been forced to flee their home to find safety, and Haitians are seeking safety on the southern border, the very least the United States can do is set a resettlement goal that meets the moment: anything but a robust commitment to humanitarian protections for refugees and asylum-seekers is a dismal failure.
"Local groups, faith-based institutions, universities, businesses and entire communities have shown greater leadership in welcoming refugees than any we have seen from the White House in recent years. The U.S. can and we must do better. Amnesty International USA is calling for the Biden Administration to admit at least 200,000 refugees this fiscal year and uphold its legal and moral commitment to allow people to seek asylum."
Background and context
Tens of thousands of Afghans have arrived to the United States to seek safety, and tens of thousands more are still in Afghanistan and in third countries urgently in need of refugee protection. There are 82 million people forcibly displaced around the world, with 1.47M people in need of resettlement this coming year according to the UN Refugee Agency, yet the United States is resettling fewer refugees than ever before.
Most recently, the Biden administration has forcibly removed at least 300 Haitian asylum-seekers in Del Rio, Texas, back to Haiti by misusing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Title 42, a public health quarantine. The removals of Haitians is a policy seeped in anti-Black racism, exacerbating the likelihood for acute harm as the U.S. government summarily returns people to a country struggling with concurrent political, environmental, and economic disasters.
Every year, the President determines the number of refugees who should be resettled to the U.S. in the upcoming fiscal year, signaling the United States commitment to those fleeing violence and persecution. The Refugee Act of 1980 created the United States' modern refugee program, which has resulted in over three million people resettled to a new home in the U.S. Through the Longer Table Initiative, Amnesty International USA and its supporters all across the country have been working to welcome refugees through community sponsorship. Actions by the Longer Table Initiative have included writing letters, signing up communities to sponsor a refugee or a refugee family to live locally, incorporating refugee stories into a book club, and more. Amnesty International USA members have passed over one hundred "I Welcome" Refugees resolutions declaring support for refugees in cities and local communities.
Reflecting its leadership in community-based resettlement, in June 2021, Amnesty International USA released "Recommendations for Private Sponsorship Design in an Expanded Community Sponsorship System." In 2020 Amnesty International USA presented its policy recommendations to the Biden transition team on increasing U.S. refugee admissions. In 2019, Amnesty International USA released a report, 'The Mountain is in Front of Us and the Sea is Behind Us': The Impact of US Policies on Refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, documenting how refugee families continue to be locked in an impossible limbo, stuck abroad and denied opportunities for resettlement, because of discriminatory U.S. policies as they try to seek safety with a new life and a permanent home.
This year, Amnesty International USA released a "Welcome Pledge" as Biden marked 100 days in office, to outline the policies that the President and his administration should embrace in order to build a country that is a place of welcome, refuge, respect, and dignity for all. The pledge--signed by many celebrity artists including George Takei, Angelique Kidjo and many more--urges the administration to welcome people as new neighbors, colleagues, classmates, friends, and families, and seeks to hold accountable the lawmakers who do not.
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.
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'Make Polio Great Again': Alarm Over RFK Jr. Lawyer Who Targeted Vaccine
"So if you're wondering if Donald Trump is trying to kill your kids, yes, yes he is," said one critic.
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Public health advocates, federal lawmakers, and other critics responded with alarm to The New York Timesreporting on Friday that an attorney helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. select officials for the next Trump administration tried to get the U.S. regulators to revoke approval of the polio vaccine in 2022.
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According to the newspaper:
Mr. Siri is also representing ICAN in petitioning the FDA to "pause distribution" of 13 other vaccines, including combination products that cover tetanus, diphtheria, polio, and hepatitis A, until their makers disclose details about aluminum, an ingredient researchers have associated with a small increase in asthma cases.
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Ayman Chit, head of vaccines for North America at Sanofi, told the newspaper that development of the vaccine began in 1977, over 280 million people worldwide have received it, and there have been more than 300 studies, some with up to six months of follow-up.
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Asked about RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine record during a Time "Person of the Year" interview published Thursday, the president-elect said that "we're going to be able to do very serious testing" and certain vaccines could be made unavailable "if I think it's dangerous."
Trump toldNBC News last weekend: "Hey, look, I'm not against vaccines. The polio vaccine is the greatest thing. If somebody told me to get rid of the polio vaccine, they're going to have to work real hard to convince me. I think vaccines are—certain vaccines—are incredible. But maybe some aren't. And if they aren't, we have to find out."
Both comments generated concern—like the Friday reporting in the Times, which University of Alabama law professor and MSNBC columnist Joyce White Vance called "absolutely terrifying."
She was far from alone. HuffPost senior front page editor Philip Lewis said that "this is just so dangerous and ridiculous" while Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan declared, "We are so—and I use this word advisedly—fucked."
Ryan Cooper, managing editor at The American Prospect, warned that "they want your kids dead."
Author and musician Mikel Jollett similarly said, "So if you're wondering if Donald Trump is trying to kill your kids, yes, yes he is."
Multiple critics altered Trump's campaign slogan to "Make Polio Great Again."
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) responded with a video on social media:
Without naming anyone, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a polio survivor, put out a lengthy statement on Friday.
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