WASHINGTON – On June 4, President Biden issued an Executive Order which would eliminate access to asylum protections at the U.S. southern border if daily arrivals exceed a certain threshold. T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, an organization mobilizing 2,300 rabbis and cantors, expressed their deep disappointment and alarm at this executive action.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the CEO of T’ruah, said:
“We are gravely concerned that the Biden administration has chosen to prioritize politics over real policy solutions at the southern border. This extreme new order follows a pattern of attempts by the Biden administration to limit asylum. T’ruah previously spoke out against a harmful supplemental funding bill negotiated last fall and this spring that would have traded away asylum seeker rights for foreign aid funding and an administration rule that would allow asylum officers to make determinations based on national security in asylum cases before they’re even heard in court.
“Seeking asylum is a human right. This administration’s repeated attempts to limit access to asylum in our country fly in the face of U.S. and international law. President Biden campaigned on a promise to undo President Trump’s harsh and unjust travel bans issued by Executive Order, yet the president is now using the same authority as those bans to justify the introduction of the latest Executive Order.
“The Talmud teaches that “hospitality is even more important than receiving the Divine Presence, for Abraham interrupted his visit with God (Gen.18:3) to greet guests. (Shabbat 127a) To deny asylum seekers entry based solely on an arbitrary number of arrivals directly contradicts our commitment to recognize and uphold the infinite value of each person.
“This past February, T’ruah, together with our partner HIAS, brought a group of rabbis to the U.S.-Mexico border to better understand the situation of asylum seekers there. Our rabbis met families and individuals fleeing violence and political instability in order to seek refuge in the United States, just like so many of our own families have done.
“We urge the administration to stop playing politics and instead focus on real solutions to an increased number of asylum seekers — solutions that do not betray our moral or legal commitments.”
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About T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.