Fellowship Southwest (FSW) joined hundreds of faith-based, humanitarian, and human rights organizations in a letter asking president Biden to honor U.S. international and domestic commitments to refugees. The document – which also commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Refugee Convention– highlights the organizations’ disappointment with the administration’s recent actions undermining refugee protections. 

“We are gravely concerned that the administration issued a new order this week (August 6th) to continue to block and expel asylum-seeking families and adults to life-threatening dangers,” says the letter.  

The statement comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) ordered the extension of Title 42 –the policy that authorizes the rapid expulsion of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. On June 2021, Marv Knox, Founder of FSW, Stephen Reeves, FSW’s Executive Director, and Elket Rodríguez, FSW’s refugee and immigrant specialist, toured the U.S.-Mexico border and witnessed first-hand the dangers migrants face after being expelled by U.S. immigration officials to the cities of northern Mexico.

Likewise, researchers and journalists “have identified over 3,200 kidnappings, torture, rape, and other attacks” suffered by expelled migrants at the border in the past 6 months. According to the document, “epidemiologists and public health experts have repeatedly denounced the Title 42 policy as lacking public health justification and actually threatening public health.” 

The situation in northern Mexico is so dire that U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has called on the United States to end Title 42 and protect refugees. The CDC’s order extending Title 42 was issued a week after the 70th anniversary of the Refugee Convention on July 28th. Back then, Marv Knox, founder of Fellowship Southwest, had warned in a press release of the U.S.’s diminishing commitment to those seeking protection from persecution.   

“Now, seven decades later, have we learned from the past? Can we say we are committed to caring for our neighbors and protecting them from persecution?” said Knox. “As we default to fear and xenophobia—exemplified by our immigration policies—the United States abdicates our responsibility to our global sisters and brothers.” 

Fellowship Southwest is a member of the Welcome with Dignity Campaign –a coalition of over 85 organizations that seek to transform the way the U.S. receives and protects people forced to flee their countries. If you want to know more about Welcome with Dignity and sign its pledge to protect refugees, click here.