AILA Public Statements, Press Releases
AILA Executive Director: Anti-Immigrant Provisions Tied to Necessary Funding Must Not Succeed
Washington, DC – As Republicans try to tie extreme anti-immigrant provisions to necessary government funding, Ben Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) responded to the provisions reportedly worked on by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), James Lankford (R-OK), and Tom Cotton (R-AR) as follows:
“At a time when the country urgently needs workable solutions to manage the border and for Congress to achieve compromise, this latest Republican proposal offers neither. Instead, it takes a page out of the far-right House bill, H.R. 2, by functionally closing the door to asylum seekers and adding harsh enforcement measures like the detention of families. Those are fierce-sounding campaign slogans that do not translate into effective border management. The new proposal even seeks to dismantle existing legal pathways, specifically humanitarian parole, that are relieving the pressure for people to enter at the U.S. border. To manage the border more efficiently, Congress should fund Customs and Border Protection to improve processing speed at U.S. ports of entry, increase the number of federal officers that screen asylum seekers, and provide needed assistance to U.S. cities that are supporting arriving migrants. Most importantly, Congress should fund the entire immigration system to reduce excessive delays that slow down border processing and prevent American businesses from hiring workers and families from reunifying with loved ones.”