I WAS A JUDGE IN PERU. THE LAW DOESN’T ALWAYS MATTER.

I work in San Diego, only 20 minutes away from the southern border, at a nonprofit organization that helps immigrants and refugees get access to services. Many of the people coming to America across the border are seeking asylum. The act of seeking asylum means you’re acknowledging being at risk if you stay in your home country, and I know how that feels. That’s because I, myself, came to America from Peru fleeing danger in the early 2000s. I was certain that my life would have been at risk if I stayed there.

Now, I’ve been driving down to the southern border and working on helping the people there for several years. I’m surprised to say the situation is worse than I’ve known it, when you talk to people about the level of distress they are in. That’s despite the hope I had that the Biden administration would improve things. There was a lot of hope in the air a couple of years ago, and now it’s withered. Right now, the main message we are sending to people at the southern border is that we don’t care about them.

After weeks of anticipation, the Biden administration has just announced a new “transit ban” first proposed under the previous president, but which was repeatedly blocked by federal courts from 2019 to 2021 for being unlawful. It makes migrants ineligible for asylum in the U.S. if they don’t first seek it in countries that they’ve passed through on their way here. Many immigrant rights organizations have threatened to sue over this new version of the law. First proposed by President Trump’s senior adviser, Stephen Miller, it’s exactly the sort of dangerous policy that Joe Biden campaigned against during the 2020 election. And it’s set to take the place of a policy called “Title 42,” which is due to sunset in May. That policy was also inhumane. It means we turn people away at the border who are seeking asylum. Even if their lives may be at risk. Replacing one inhumane policy with another inhumane policy isn’t what people were expecting from the Biden administration on these issues.

My belief is that what is happening at the southern border right now is a thing called “aporophobia.” It’s a word invented by the Spanish philosopher Adela Cortina. It describes why we reject and have contempt for the poor and the helpless instead of helping them. I know we can do better as a society and that we show our true values in how we treat the least fortunate. It’s time for us to do that — to show our better selves. It means demonstrating our firm disposition to do the good. Policies like this are a stain on the Biden administration. The president has said he would prefer Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, but that is passing the buck.

Back in Peru, I served as a magistrate judge and I was a law school instructor with a promising career. That all changed when a paternity case came before me in 1999. The alleged father was a presidential candidate, Alejandro Toledo, who won the election and took office while the case was still ongoing. Negative headlines about me filled newsstands. I was also physically attacked and still have the scars. I have photographs of my injuries which were part of my asylum case when I arrived in the United States, so I know about asylum law.

I also know that the shades of the law don’t matter to you so much when you’re running for your life. And even those who do manage to cross the southern border don’t always understand their legal fix. I had three young people in my office with their documents last week. But unfortunately their documents were all water-damaged. It was difficult to even read what their legal situation was. And from there, it’s hard to find legal support for them. What I do know is that they wouldn’t be here in that situation if they weren’t desperate. When I see pictures on the television of families crossing the Darién Gap in Central America, they’re knee-deep in mud. They have children on their backs. That’s the definition of desperation.

I don’t want to be negative. But sometimes I ask myself if the situation at the southern border is ever going to change. Since America is the leader of the free world, it matters to me that the nation has policies that show our values. Welcoming people who are in danger and giving them safe refuge is one of those values. We need to do better to live it out in practice.

What is happening at the southern border right now is a thing called ‘aporophobia.’ It’s a word invented by the Spanish philosopher Adela Cortina that describes why we reject and have contempt for the poor and the helpless instead of helping them. I know we can do better as a society.