Amnesty: The United States Border Crisis is Still a Human Rights Emergency

For decades, migrants have used the United States’ vast border with Mexico as a crossing point to enter the United States and seek asylum. While most migrants originate from Mexico or Central America, thousands of migrants from Russia, China, India and Turkey seeking U.S. residence have flown to Mexico and crossed the frontier to potentially evade border patrol when crossing by land. The migrants and asylum seekers arriving at the border have a variety of motivations, from fleeing violence to wanting to join family members or seeking better economic opportunities. 

While anybody with a legitimate fear of persecution can apply for asylum, most asylum applications in the United States are rejected due to a cap on refugee admissions and specific requirements for asylum seekers, such as not having been convicted of a serious crime or felony. As a result, many migrants crossing the border aim to do so illegally and evade immigration controls so they can start their lives in the United States without having to undergo the long and arduous process of obtaining asylum.

In 2014, the Obama administration declared a crisis at the border due to a sharp increase in unaccompanied minors and women illegally crossing. Illegal immigration has long been used as a right-wing scapegoat for the issues the United States faces, including high unemployment and increasing violent crime rates. This rhetoric featured prominently in the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, in which he mobilized supporters with calls to build a border wall and made inflammatory statements about the character of migrants, notably stating that “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” 

In January 2017, Trump began his term by signing Executive Order 13767, which directed the U.S. government to start the construction of the border wall. Throughout his term, a wall was constructed along 455 miles of the border, 49 miles of which previously had no barrier. By 2020, much of this construction was in danger of collapsing due to erosion. Several officials, including Trump advisor Steve Bannon, were indicted for defrauding investors and using wall funds for personal gain. 

Additionally, Trump sparked controversy with policies designed to separate migrant children from their families, detain migrants in overcrowded detention centers in dangerous and unhealthy conditions, and end the practice of allowing asylum seekers to live in the U.S. while awaiting court proceedings. In 2018, the conditions of migrant detention centers run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were exposed in the media. Journalists and human rights monitors who visited the centers discovered egregious human rights violations, including sexual abuse, a lack of food and clean drinking water and insufficient medical care. Many members of Congress visited the detention centers to observe the poor conditions firsthand in what Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson labeled a “Hill stunt.” 

The international community quickly condemned the detention centers. Amnesty International released a report detailing the poor conditions on both sides of the border. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said she was “deeply shocked” at the treatment of children and expressed concern for their development and wellbeing.

In 2019, Trump implemented the Migrant Protection Protocol, or “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their immigration papers were processed. This policy returned at least 70,000 asylum seekers to Mexico, many of whom were trying to escape threats and persecution experienced in the country.

While President Biden pledged a sharp turnaround from Trump’s cruel immigration policies while on the campaign trail, his leadership has demonstrated outright hypocrisy and little progress on border matters. He vowed to reunite migrant families separated by the Trump administration, close ICE-operated detention centers, end construction of the border wall and raise the annual cap for refugee admissions. However, none of these promises have been delivered during his two years in office, and there is little evidence that conditions for migrants at the border have improved from the standard set by the Trump administration.

Despite his mantra of “not another foot” of border wall development, in July 2022, Biden’s administration quietly began construction to fill four major gaps in the border wall near Yuma, Arizona — one of the busiest locations for illegal border crossings. Additionally, while Biden ran on a promise of ending the Migrant Protection Policy, it remains in place after the two years he has spent in office, although he did exempt LGBTQ asylum seekers and people with certain medical and mental health conditions, recognizing their vulnerability in Mexico. 

Furthermore, President Biden has controversially used Title 42, a COVID-19 control policy, to increase expulsions of migrants at the border. Title 42 was first enacted by Trump in 2020 to rapidly expel asylum seekers to control COVID-19 and has been used 2.4 million times since its establishment. Title 42 was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court in Nov. 2022 in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Still, the Biden administration appealed the ruling on Dec. 8 to continue expulsions under the guise of public health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reportedly working with Biden to formalize this policy as a permanent health measure, despite lifting most other COVID policies.

The United States border crisis is a human rights emergency — there is no room for bipartisan hatred and broken promises in our immigration system. American leaders must protect the legal right to seek asylum and ensure that migrants are treated humanely and fairly at all steps of the immigration process.