From the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP)
The Arizona Welcoming Task Force (AZWTF) resolutely echoes the sentiments of our fellow humanitarian and legal service providers in California, who earlier this month released a joint statement calling on the Biden administration to reopen legal pathways for those seeking asylum in the United States. Since its inauguration, the Biden administration – far from making good on its commitment to an “orderly and fair processing” of asylum seekers – has disingenuously invoked the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to suspend asylum access almost entirely. In doing so, this administration has put countless survivors of violence and persecution into life-threatening states of limbo, forcing many into irregular migration pathways where their attempts to seek protection are subsequently labeled as ‘illegal’.