Urge your Senator to Uphold the U.S. Promise to Provide Safe Haven to Individuals Fleeing Persecution
March 15, 2010 marked the 30th anniversary of the historic Refugee Act of 1980. Since the enactment of the Refugee Act, the U.S. has provided refuge to thousands of individuals each year who have fled persecution and torture in their homelands. In recent years, however, restrictive changes to our immigration laws and negative court decisions have created barriers to protection and denied refuge to many deserving individuals. On March 15, 2010 Senator Leahy (D-VT) introduced The Refugee Protection Act of 2010 (S.3113) to address these barriers and renew the U.S. commitment to protect refugees. Since then, Senators Levin (D-MI), Durbin (D-IL), Akaka (D-HI), and Burris (D-IL) have joined as co-sponsors.
The Refugee Protection Act of 2010 would:
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Eliminate the filing deadline, which has resulted in the denial of asylum to thousands of bona fide refugees who were unable to file asylum applications within one year of arrival to the U.S. due to psychological trauma, lack of knowledge about asylum, or other valid reasons.
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Clarify the legal standards applicable to the protection of particularly vulnerable individuals, such as women and children, who have been persecuted or fear persecution based on membership in a “particular social group.”
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Restore access to protection for refugee claims based on mixed motive - such as when an individual is persecuted because of race (protected under immigration law) and class (not protected under immigration law) - which has been weakened in recent years.
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Help ensure due process protections by providing asylum seekers with the opportunity to explain and clarify alleged inconsistencies in their statements of what happened to them.
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Permit all children seeking asylum to have their cases heard at the asylum office, rather than the adversarial setting of the immigration courts.
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Bring U.S. norms in line with international standards so that innocent individuals – such as women forced at gunpoint to cook for armed militants – are not considered to be terrorists and thereby excluded from protection.
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Encourage the release from detention of asylum seekers who have been found to have a “credible fear” of persecution and who do not pose a danger to the public.
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In appropriate cases, provide asylum seekers access to court appointed counsel when doing so is necessary for a fair resolution of a case.
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Protect the human rights of those asylum seekers who cannot be released by improving conditions of detention.
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Allow individuals who have been granted refugee or asylee status to obtain permanent residency – and thus begin the path to U.S. citizenship - more quickly
Click here for a full summary of the bill.