Letter from the Executive Director
Letter from the Executive Director
This month’s visit to El Paso from President Biden was a disappointment.
His first stop had nothing to do with migration, but everything to do with the billion-dollar border security complex. This has the unfortunate effect of conflating unrelated issues – drug smuggling and immigration – that serves to distract and impugn migrants. It reinforces the false premise that you have to be “tough” on border security, if we are to show any compassion or humanity towards those who are the most vulnerable. It ignores the ways in which our actual policies strengthen the criminal enterprises in Mexico and beyond.
His second stop was an unscheduled visit to the border wall, for an obligatory photo op, at what was once a beautiful river bend and historic place of encounter. Finally, he attended the county’s migrant welcome center, which was curiously sanitized of actual migrants. While he was apparently shown photos, he didn’t speak with anyone who might actually challenge his world view, as he expressed in comments following his Thursday immigration speech, that most of the people in the 140+ countries he’s visited would jump at the opportunity to migrate to the US if given the chance.
Beyond the immediate help that Biden may offer to cities such as El Paso in the form of federal reimbursement, the administration has offered nothing but more misery for migrants in the form of expanded expulsions and new requirements for seeking asylum. No mention was made of what happens to migrants once they are returned to Mexico. No mention was made of what happens to the many who are in complete limbo, who have crossed undetected and wish to pursue asylum but have nowhere to go for shelter. The bodily harm and the psychological anguish that people will continue to suffer is not a factor. Death is not a factor. It becomes “not our problem” once we shift this burden to Mexico. No mention was made of the tens of thousands currently in immigration detention, not knowing how long they may be detained.
JFON El Paso believes in fighting for a functioning asylum system that doesn’t require money or ties to the US, that can be accessed from US soil, for those who have fled for their lives. We need to welcome more people. The NGO community is ready to do this. Public opinion is behind the expansion of asylum. And migrants should not be detained while pursuing their asylum cases.
The Department of Homeland Security’s budget for Fiscal Year 2023 is a whopping $97 billion. Of that, $389 million is allocated to asylum adjudication. On the enforcement side, $1.4 billion is allocated to detention beds for ICE, $2.3 billion for ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and $421 million for deportation flights. Not only is there no political will to build back our asylum system, but there’s also apparently no money either.
I wanted to watch with pride, as my children and I witnessed Air Force One touch down in our city. I wanted Biden to respond with humility, in line with Catholic social teachings, towards those in our city who were waiting for him to actually hear their stories. But our government’s response, from expanding Title 42 to decades of congressional inaction, has not met this moment. Biden, and many others before him, have simply looked away. As we welcome the new year, we pledge to keep up the fight, and we hope you join us.
Vanessa Johnson, Interim Executive Director