Originally published as "We Need To Talk About Forced Migration," The Cap Times, July 11, 2021.
President Joe Biden has been making changes to the previous administration’s immigration laws over the past few months, repealing Donald Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy and raising the cap on the number of refugees that the U.S. accepts annually. However, thousands remain stuck at the U.S.-Mexico border with delays in processing asylum claims and backlash from people along the political spectrum as the dust anything but settles on the dawn of these changes.
After too many years of dehumanizing and discriminatory immigration policies directed at people seeking sanctuary in the U.S., it is time that we thought about building a longer table instead of a bigger wall.