The Impractical Emma Lazarus
The Department of Homeland Security has apparently determined that securing our borders is more important than securing our heritage as the one place that people "yearning to be free" could find a home. Those seeking asylum in this country are now being treated as criminals while they await some chance at a fair hearing on their cases. From today's NY Times:
A bipartisan federal commission warned on Wednesday that the Bush administration, in its zeal to secure the nation’s borders and stem the tide of illegal immigrants, may be leaving asylum seekers vulnerable to deportation and harsh treatment.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which Congress asked to assess asylum regulations, found two years ago that some immigration officials were improperly processing asylum seekers for deportation. The commission, which also found that asylum seekers were often strip-searched, shackled and held in jails, called for safeguards in the system of speedy deportations known as expedited removal, to protect those fleeing persecution. [Emphasis added]
The report from two years ago issued recommendations on how to deal more fairly with asylum seekers, yet the government has done nothing substantial to implement any of those recommendations. The reason for the lack of action?
“We have taken their report seriously,” said Stewart A. Baker, an assistant secretary of homeland security. “But some of their recommendations just weren’t practical given the enormous flood of illegal immigrants that we deal with every day.” [Emphasis added]
Efficiency is more important than basic human decency and fairness, at least in the eyes of DHS. It's much easier to just turn all of those immigrants around under the expedited removal program than to give them an immediate interview to check on just how credible their fears are with respect to their country of origin. That might take several hours of the agents' times which would be better spent in stemming the flood of brown people. After all...
...it would be too burdensome to create a separate detention program for asylum seekers and that such a system might create incentives for people to claim that they were fleeing persecution.
My father and his family wouldn't have had a chance. Not one of them could throw a 90 mile an hour fastball
A bipartisan federal commission warned on Wednesday that the Bush administration, in its zeal to secure the nation’s borders and stem the tide of illegal immigrants, may be leaving asylum seekers vulnerable to deportation and harsh treatment.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which Congress asked to assess asylum regulations, found two years ago that some immigration officials were improperly processing asylum seekers for deportation. The commission, which also found that asylum seekers were often strip-searched, shackled and held in jails, called for safeguards in the system of speedy deportations known as expedited removal, to protect those fleeing persecution. [Emphasis added]
The report from two years ago issued recommendations on how to deal more fairly with asylum seekers, yet the government has done nothing substantial to implement any of those recommendations. The reason for the lack of action?
“We have taken their report seriously,” said Stewart A. Baker, an assistant secretary of homeland security. “But some of their recommendations just weren’t practical given the enormous flood of illegal immigrants that we deal with every day.” [Emphasis added]
Efficiency is more important than basic human decency and fairness, at least in the eyes of DHS. It's much easier to just turn all of those immigrants around under the expedited removal program than to give them an immediate interview to check on just how credible their fears are with respect to their country of origin. That might take several hours of the agents' times which would be better spent in stemming the flood of brown people. After all...
...it would be too burdensome to create a separate detention program for asylum seekers and that such a system might create incentives for people to claim that they were fleeing persecution.
My father and his family wouldn't have had a chance. Not one of them could throw a 90 mile an hour fastball
Labels: Homeland Security, Immigration
posted by Diane at 9:56 AM
1 Comments:
Don't worry - Dubya has a plan: Build more asylums.
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