Federal Asylum Officers Blast New Biden Rule as Contrary to Legal, Moral Obligations

[James48]

From http://www.govexec.com


Federal Asylum Officers Blast New Biden Rule as Contrary to Legal, Moral Obligations

Management has told employees they understand the concerns, but employees will either have to comply or quit.
MARCH 30, 2023
By Eric Katz

The Biden’s administration’s plan to severely restrict asylum approvals is drawing outcry from the Homeland Security Department employees who would implement the policy, with the staffers calling it unlawful and “contrary to the moral fabric of our nation.”

Asylum personnel said they would have to violate their oaths to carry out the yet-to-be-implemented policy. They have voiced their concerns to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service leadership, who told them at a recent town hall that, assuming the proposal is finalized, they can either follow the guidance or find a new job.

The union that represents USCIS employees—the American Federation of Government Employees Council 119—filed its complaints as a comment on the proposed rule DHS and the Justice Department put forward in February. To be able to apply for asylum, the rule would require immigrants who entered U.S. territory after first traveling through another country to have either applied for asylum elsewhere during their travels, made an appointment at a port of entry through a DHS app or received parole through a limited program.

“At their core, the measures that the proposed rule seeks to implement are inconsistent with the asylum law enacted by Congress, the treaties the United States has ratified, and our country’s moral fabric and longstanding tradition of providing safe haven to the persecuted,” the union said in its comment, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. “Rather, it is draconian and represents the elevation of a single policy goal—reducing the number of migrants crossing the southwest border—over human life and our country’s commitment to refugees.”


More: https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/03/federal-asylum-officers-blast-new-biden-rule-contrary-legal-moral-obligations/384640/

[Hekate]

1. WHERE WERE THEY FROM 2016 TO 2021?

[The Unmitigated Gall]

2. Right???

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. In court and Congress

President Donald Trump’s remain-in-Mexico policy for asylum-seekers puts migrants in danger and violates U.S. and international law, according to an amicus brief filed by the union for asylum officers.

The union brief, filed Wednesday, told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco that asylum officers “should not be forced to honor departmental directives that are fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our nation.” CBS News, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Texas Tribune have coverage.

https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/union-for-asylum-officers-files-brief-opposing-remain-in-mexico-policy

Today’s hearing shines critical Congressional light on the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)
“Remain in Mexico” Policy rolled out by the Trump administration this year. I expect my copanelists to produce significant evidence demonstrating why MPP is an unmitigated disaster for
everyone involved. My testimony focuses on how MPP is affecting – and hurting – my fellow
Asylum Officers, who must either carry out orders and run the program they reasonably believe
violate the law and endanger asylum seekers or leave their jobs.
...
To begin, my Union has taken and continues to take stands against policies we consider illegal.
We actively support our members who exercise their lawful rights to report abusive policies,
programs and practices to Congress and other agencies, as well as their first amendment rights.
We have filed Amicus Curiae briefs in four major court cases challenging the Trump
administration’s illegal and dangerous policies regarding the US Refugee and Asylum programs:
(i) the 2017 travel ban that suspended most overseas refugee processing; (ii) the MPP policy; (iii)
the substantive changes to USCIS training and guidance materials for Asylum Officers; and (iv)
the so-called “third country transit bar” -- the insidious rule barring migrants arriving at the
southern border from receiving asylum if they transited through a third country and did not apply
for and were denied asylum while there.2 Because of the relevance of our MPP Amicus brief to
today’s hearing, it is attached here as Exhibit 1 and is incorporated into my testimony.

https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110226/witnesses/HHRG-116-HM11-Wstate-KnowlesM-20191119-U1.pdf