Asylum saves lives. It is under attack. – Minnesota Reformer

In today’s congressional battle over asylum, the real people seeking protection get lost. In Minnesota, one of those real people is Dr. Edwige Mubonzi. 

Death threats drove Mubonzi from her home and work in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rape was used as a weapon of war, and civil war over valuable minerals raged through the country. Her medical work in repairing the physical damage of rape victims made her a target. So did her advocacy for rape victims. Mubonzi didn’t want to leave her country, but the death threats left her no choice. She came to the United States — to Minnesota — and was granted asylum in 2015.  

Today, U.S. asylum laws are being targeted in congressional negotiations over a supplemental funding bill. Attacks on asylum and humanitarian parole are falsely proposed as “border security” measures. Gutting asylum protection adds nothing to border security and, instead, will increase border chaos.  

Instead of putting impossible conditions on asylum, Congress should provide adequate funding to improve asylum processing.

As U.S. law contemplates, asylum seekers should be able to make their applications and have those applications considered by an asylum officer or judge in a timely manner. They should not have to use an often unreliable cell phone app to get an appointment to ask for permission to make an application. They should not be forced to wait for months in unsafe camps in Mexico, in danger of extortion, robbery and rape.

Adequate funding would allow an orderly asylum process at the border, as well as reducing the current years-long backlogs for decisions on asylum applications.

Doing so would help Minnesota continue its long and honorable history welcoming people fleeing persecution and war. Mubonzi chose to come to Minnesota because of the many human rights organizations here. In the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Minnesota welcomed 1,525 refugees from more than 30 countries. On a per capita basis, Minnesota leads the nation in welcoming refugees.  

Like Mubonzi, people fleeing danger in their home countries do not all come with official refugee status. Asylum seekers, like refugees, must show that they were persecuted or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.  

Unlike refugees, who apply from outside the United States, asylum seekers must make their applications from inside the United States or at the border as they enter. 

Humanitarian parole offers another way in. Many Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion of their country were admitted with humanitarian parole. Afghans airlifted here when the Taliban took over also received humanitarian parole.  

Whatever their status, these new Minnesotans have at least two things in common: They are fleeing intolerable situations in their home countries — and they have a great capacity to contribute to their new communities. As doctors, home health care aides, teachers, and much more, they contribute to building Minnesota for all of us. 

Minnesota’s decades of welcoming refugees informs our defense of asylum and humanitarian parole. Blocking vulnerable immigrants from seeking access to safety endangers their lives and the lives of their families. That is just as true of asylum seekers and humanitarian parolees as it is of refugees. The lives of vulnerable and persecuted people must not be reduced to bargaining chips in partisan deal-making. 

The current attack on asylum is sadly not a new proposal. Every time that “must pass” legislation comes up, some in Congress try to use it as a bargaining chip to gut asylum protections. They tried with the last budget negotiation to keep the government open, they are trying now with the supplemental funding package, and they will try again in next year’s budget battles.  

People seeking safe haven for themselves and their children should not be pawns in anyone’s political games.