ILAP Speaks Out Against Politicization of Asylum Seekers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 5, 2024
CONTACT: press@ilapmaine.org

ILAP remains steadfast with national partners that trading the rights and lives of asylum seekers for one-time foreign aid is categorically unacceptable. ILAP released this statement:

“Trading away human life, safety, and dignity is not a compromise, it is a moral and humanitarian failure that cuts away at our proclaimed values as a country and society,” said Sue Roche, Executive Director at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP). “ILAP stands with asylum seekers and the right to seek asylum and calls on lawmakers to reject the proposed Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024. Language in the bill about asylum flies in the face of international law and would strip away due process for incredibly vulnerable people, permitting rapid expulsions that will inevitably strand people in Mexico and leave them in peril, among other dangerous provisions. We can and must build a just and welcoming asylum system and lawmakers should come to the table with strategies that improve access and preserve and expand human and legal rights - using people fleeing for their lives as political fodder is unacceptable.”

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