Shutting Doors: How the U.S. is Poised to End Asylum & Turn Its Back on the Persecuted

The U.S. government has just proposed regulations that would eviscerate the current U.S. asylum system, making it effectively impossible for people fleeing persecution to obtain protection in the United States. If implemented, among other acute concerns, the rule would eliminate gender based asylum—shutting the door to anyone fleeing life-threatening persecution due to their gender, while undoing decades of legal precedent. Women fleeing rape and severe domestic violence, LGBTQ+ individuals facing deadly attacks, and those escaping other fatal gender-based harms in their home countries would no longer be able to find safety in the U.S. if the regulations take effect.

Panelists

• Mary Giovagnoli, Senior Counsel for Legal Strategy and Special Programs, KIND (Kids in Need of Defense)
  
• Charanya Krishnaswami, Advocacy Director for the Americas, Amnesty International USA
• Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Counsel, American Immigration Council
• Kursten Phelps, Co-Director of Client Advocacy, Tahirih Justice Center
  

Moderator

• Jennie Kneedler, Staff Attorney, ABA Commission on Immigration
  

Joint Sponsors: ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence, ABA Commission on Immigration

Resources

Submitting Comments

Federal Register - Procedures for Asylum and Withholding of Removal; Credible Fear and Reasonable Fear Review

American Immigration Lawyers Association's Advocacy Action Center

Tahirh Justice Center Action Alert: Save Asylum

Stand with Survivors - Tahirih Justice Center Gender-Based Asylum Microsite

Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. Call to Action

Legal Assistance

U.S. Department of Justice List of Pro Bono Legal Service Providers

Immigration Advocates Network National Immigration Legal Services Directory

Selected Articles and Backgrounders

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, “What You Need to Know About Trump’s Proposal to Eliminate the US Asylum System,” Immigration Impact (American Immigration Council), June 11, 2020.

“Tahirih Explains: Gender-Based Asylum” (June 2020)

Prof. Natalie Nanasi, “New Trump Immigration Regulations Would Devastate Refuge Pathways,” Op-Ed, The Hill, June 16, 2020

Prof. Philip G. Schrag, “The End of Asylum -- For Now,” Op-Ed, The Hill, June 16, 2020

Bill Frelick, “For World Refugee Day, the US plans to reject them all,” Op-Ed, The Hill, June 20, 2020

Public Health Experts Urge U.S. Officials to Withdraw Order Enabling Mass Expulsion of Asylum Seekers

Sign-on Letters

Letter from 34 senators led by Senator Richard Blumenthal calling for immediate reversal of all anti-asylum policies

Letter signed by 502 organizations and coalitions requesting an extension of the short 30-day public comment period to respond to the lengthy proposed rule, to provide a full, standard 60-days for meaningful stakeholder input. Also previews substantive concerns.

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