Thread by @KarenTumlin

It's been quite the Friday in immigration news 🗞️. Here are my hot takes on the asylum news from today.

Speed & efficiency are great values for vaccine distribution but they are off base for asylum. Here's why: the cost of going too fast = sending people to their deaths. 1/10

The day's 1st announcement was from @TheJusticeDept & @DHSgov creating a rocket docket for families seeking asylum who are exempted from the cruel Title 42 policy that expels most families seeking safety. (They call it a "dedicated docket" but if it walks like a 🦆 ...) 2/10

I'm not against efficient systems if they're fair, but we're light years away from a fair system. Real talk: we do not have a working asylum system for the southern border. We have an expulsion policy-unjustified by public health needs-with a pitiful amount of exceptions. 3/10

And now those few families that are allowed to seek asylum will be put on a rocket docket to determine their safety. We've seen this movie before: both the Trump & Obama administrations used rocket dockets & both cut corners with people's rights. A 3rd time is not a charm. 4/10

What's my beef with rushed justice for asylum seekers? It just doesn't fit with the realities of the court system that asylum seekers face. 1st, there is the challenge of obtaining counsel in a new country where you likely don't speak the language & can't work on the books. 5/10

Add to that add the trauma that asylum seekers have faced--and the violence--both in their native country & for many while forced to wait in Mexico. It takes time for an attorney to work with the family to properly present their claims. Time here is not wasted it's required. 6/10

And, don't forget when you are fleeing for your life you generally don't stop to make copies of paperwork. So, it takes time to get the factual support necessary to present your asylum case in court. Rushed justice is no justice when it comes to asylum. 7/10

The Biden administration knows how to big, hard things. My ask is that when they think of asylum they think first about the need for fairness for families, not for speed and efficiencies. These are humans seeking safety. We must #WelcomeWithDignity 8/10

And news scoop #2? Brought to you courtesy of scoopster @Haleaziz. Guess what it is: another proposed reform of asylum focused on the value of efficiency and increasing speed of adjudications. Sigh.

https://twitter.com/Haleaziz/status/1398354662982520834?s=20

9/10

I hope that for any further reforms, the first question the government officials ask themselves is: what would I want if it was my family? Would I want a faster process or a fairer one? 10/10