Tell Congress: Save Asylum | Physicians for Human Rights

Tell Congress: Save Asylum

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Right now, Congress and the White House are considering serious changes to the U.S. asylum and immigration system as part of a government funding deal. Lawmakers are considering extreme, Trump-era immigration measures that would gut the U.S. asylum system, skyrocket ICE detention and deportations, and institute border expulsion policies like Title 42, which was widely opposed by the medical community.

This time around, U.S. officials are reportedly not even trying to offer the same spurious public health arguments they used to justify Title 42. Members of Congress need to hear urgently from you that the lives and dignity of refugees and immigrants cannot be bargained away.

Please, add your name to our call for action urging Members of Congress to reject these draconian policy proposals.

Message
Your Message
Protect the Right to Seek Asylum
Dear Senator/Representative

I am alarmed by negotiations between Congress and the White House that may weaken asylum protections and implement extreme, Trump-era immigration policies. I urge you to reject any proposal that would gut our asylum system or harm immigrants in our communities.

Physicians for Human Rights — whose 30-year-old PHR Asylum Network comprises more than 2,000 health care providers nationwide — has extensively documented the debilitating physical and psychological health impacts from human rights violations under policies now being debated. These include expansion of mandatory detention, Title 42-like expulsions, and other inhumane border expulsion policies. It is unacceptable to agree to anti-immigrant proposals that will undermine our nation’s obligation to provide refuge for people fleeing persecution.

We need real solutions to the humanitarian crises that refugees face across the globe. But the policies being considered do not effectively enable safe and orderly processing of people and their asylum claims. Instead, these policies compound the suffering of thousands of people at the U.S. border and nationwide.

Denying the rights and safety of those seeking asylum, rounding up immigrants for detention and mass deportations, and arbitrarily expelling people from the country would constitute cruel violations of human rights. As your constituent, I ask that you reject these draconian policies now.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]