Biden order limiting asylum at southern border will harm people's health

Based on its experience working with asylum seekers and migrants in Mexico for more than a decade, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is extremely concerned about the devastating impacts this order will have on the physical and mental health of people seeking safety. Our teams working on the northern border of Mexico continue to witness the suffering caused by years of harsh immigration policies that have trapped vulnerable people seeking asylum in inhumane conditions at the US-Mexico border.

Avril Benoît, MSF USA chief executive officer, gave the following statement: 

“In signing this executive order, President Biden has betrayed his promise to build a fair, safe and humane immigration system. This order is not only counter to US law and international law, it puts people’s lives and health at risk. 

Today’s decision will trap vulnerable people, including young families, in insecure cities in Mexico and put them in grave danger. The Biden administration continues to prioritize optics and political expediency at the expense of thousands of people who are attempting to exercise their legal right to seek asylum.

MSF teams have witnessed first-hand the impact of the Biden administration’s increasingly harsh immigration policies that continue to prevent people from seeking asylum at the southern US border. Along the migration route, and particularly in northern Mexico, MSF teams providing care to migrants and asylum seekers have witnessed an increase in people seeking care following kidnappings, attacks, and sexual violence. The people we meet have left everything behind in search of safety and the chance of a better life. 

Arbitrarily shutting down asylum at the US southern border will only exacerbate humanitarian needs and expose those seeking safety to insecurity along the US-Mexico border and in other locations on the migration route. 

Instead of enacting misguided measures that block asylum at the US border and create humanitarian needs in Mexico, the Biden administration should focus on adequately resourcing asylum processing at the US-Mexico border to improve its efficiency, consistency, and fairness.”