H.R. 391, the “Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act,” is unfortunately yet another anti-immigrant measure premised on rhetoric and misinformation.
Notwithstanding the bill’s short title, H.R. 391 does nothing to reform our Nation’s asylum system. In fact, it dismantles it.
This assault on our asylum system is predicated on the unsubstantiated belief that it is rife with fraud and abuse.
I say unsubstantiated because there is absolutely no reliable evidence to support this legislation.
In fact, nearly every organization that works with asylees offers compelling evidence of legitimate claims and rampant human rights abuses in sending countries that drive many of these individuals to seek sanctuary.
Worse than the fact that there is no need for H.R. 391, the bill fundamentally undermines our Nation’s asylum system.
To begin with, it slashes protections for asylum seekers and other vulnerable populations, thereby effectively forcing them to return to the persecution they have fled.
To take just one example, the bill would erect a “credible fear” screening standard so stringent that it would virtually guarantee the deportation and, in some cases, the death of legitimate asylum seekers.
Second, H.R. 391 unreasonably holds young children seeking protection to the same standard as adults. For instance, this bill would for the first time subject unaccompanied minors to the “safe third country” bar to asylum. It also authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to unilaterally label a foreign nation a “safe third country,” even over that nation’s objections and even if the nation fails to truly provide adequate humanitarian protections.
Taken together, these provisions mean that the Trump Administration could prohibit every single child—no matter how fragile and traumatized—who passes through another country – such as Mexico - from even applying for asylum in the United States.
Finally, this bill betrays our troops. It would end what is known as the military “parole-in-place” program, through which thousands of U.S. military family members reside without fear in the United States.
It would likewise terminate the Filipino World War II Veterans Parole Program, which allows the loved ones of these veterans—many of whom are now U.S. citizens—to join and care for them in the United States.
My colleagues, we are better than this. America is better than this.
Accordingly, I urge you to oppose this flawed legislation and I yield back the balance of my time.
