A Senate Republican “working group” has outlined a border and migration proposal as a likely condition of keeping the U.S. government open past the next “shutdown” date (November 17).

I’m still struggling to express graphically how severe this proposal’s consequences would be for tens of thousands of people facing real danger. Here is another attempt.

Infographic: Imagine that Senate Republicans' November 2023 border and migration proposal became law. Now imagine that you have fled to the U.S. border to seek asylum. A series of arrows pointing downward, getting ever narrower as they reach the bottom. Did you seek asylum, and get turned down, in every single country you passed through, no matter how impoverished, dangerous, and unable to protect you those countries are? Did CBP officers doing “metering” at the borderline permit you to approach an official land border crossing (port of entry) to ask for asylum? Was DHS somehow unable to ship you off to a (likely impoverished or dangerous) third country to go seek asylum there? In your rapid screening interview, did you meet a new, very high “credible fear” standard? Was DHS somehow unable to make you “Remain in Mexico”while you await your immigration court hearings? Was ICE somehow unable to hold you (and your kids) in detention? Did you make it this far? Almost certainly not. But if you did, then the United States might consider protecting you from likely harm, without jailing you in a detention center. This is a remarkably cruel proposal, undoing generations of basic protections. It must not become law. View the actual proposal at https://bit.ly/2311_senate_gop

See also: