This is the worst time yet to gut asylum protections for those fleeing persecution
As a documentary filmmaker, I’m always careful to consider how my framing of a story will affect a movement or an issue. Never has this been more true then in making “Paper Children.”
In 2014 I read a report by Americans for Immigrant Justice on the unfolding crisis of unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central America to seek protection in the United States. That year, almost 60,000 children sought refuge, an enormous increase after levels had remained under 8,000 for many years. The context was horrifying — gruesome gang violence, extreme poverty, human trafficking and sexual violence, all disproportionately affecting children. Notably this included far more girls and increasingly younger children than ever before.
As the mother of little boys, I was heartbroken reading their stories; and as the daughter of a former child refugee, I was appalled at our country’s reaction. Rather than questioning why children would flee their homes alone, risking a treacherous journey, we sounded the alarm of a border security crisis and rushed to fast-track their deportation. Six years later, we continue to politicize asylum seekers, failing to recognize their humanitarian plight. In our failure to acknowledge the essence of this issue — protecting the most vulnerable — both sides of the political spectrum are complicit in dismantling asylum protections. For years, we have slowly been chipping away at 40 years of carefully crafted asylum law, and while the past three years have been an all-out assault on the system, this is only possible because of the systematic demonizing of refugees as violent threats to our national security.
Until we reframe our approach to the issue, we will continue to fail to uphold our own laws and values, and send people home to their deaths.
My father was welcomed here from Cuba as a 14year-old unaccompanied child in the 1960s. He fled mandatory military inscription through Operation Peter Pan, which brought 14,000 children to safety in the United States. He arrived with the clothes on his back and spoke no English. Today, he is a passionate patriot and a community leader. Unlike the children and families arriving today, he was granted immediate legal protection in recognition of the oppressive regime that he fled, rather than being labeled a criminal or security threat.
While working on “Paper Children,” I was struck by the inexplicably disparate treatment of the eldest brother, Fernando.
Armed groups took over their village, threatened to murder and rape his younger siblings and decimated their extended family. Fernando had no choice but to bring his siblings to safety in the United States. As an unaccompanied child, Fernando’s asylum claim was fast-tracked. Being a typical 17-year-old, he was reluctant to show his emotions, buried his trauma and was quickly denied by the Asylum Office. His younger siblings were unable to keep their emotions hidden, yielding different outcomes. Even under the best of circumstances with competent, pro bono legal representation (the children are represented by Catholic Legal Services), asylum feels like a game of roulette.
The same issues plague young Black teenagers, often perceived as menacing adults, sometimes with deadly consequences. In this moment of national reckoning on social and racial justice, we need to consider how our policies similarly affect immigrants. Perception kills, and in the immigration system it drives policy and decisions by many judges and asylum officers, who are increasingly unsympathetic to older teenage boys.
How politicized has this become? In 2017, I submitted several scenes to a notable media outlet as a potential short video. They were going to publish a particularly moving moment where several hundred families gather to learn about how to protect their rights in case of an immigration raid. They declined to use the footage when they learned that the filming took place during the Obama administration. It felt like a lost opportunity to acknowledge our country’s longstanding issues when it comes to immigration. Dehumanizing asylumseekers didn’t start with Trump’s administration, although the attacks have greatly intensified.
In the latest blow to asylum, the Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office for Immigration Review jointly proposed alarming new regulations that will eviscerate U.S. asylum laws and gut protections for people fleeing life-threatening persecution. This has been buried in the relentless challenges of the past month, but the impact of these regulations, unchecked, would be insurmountable.
In the middle of a pandemic, as we fight for our health and livelihoods, it feels particularly callous to turn our backs on the most vulnerable. I encourage everyone to speak out against these proposed asylum regulations. Public comments are due July 15, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
As the Federal Register website says: “Your voice in federal decision-making.” Let your voice be heard, and let’s reframe the narrative.