March 13, 2025
Filippo Grandi
UNHCR, The High Commissioner
UNHCR Headquarters
Case Postale 2500
CH-1211 Genève, 2 Dépôt Switzerland
Via email: [email protected]
Dear High Commissioner,
Open letter re: Urgent appeal regarding the safety of asylum seekers in the United States
I am writing to you with deep concern regarding the recent shifts in US asylum policy and their immediate and profound impact on the safety and well-being of asylum seekers. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plays a vital role in upholding international refugee protection standards, and I urge your office to re-assess whether the US is still adequately observing equitable access to asylum and the principles of non-refoulement since President Donald Trump took office.
The policy measures introduced by President Donald Trump's executive actions on his first day back in office made one thing abundantly clear: that the US immigration system is being weaponized.
President Trump effectively shut down the US refugee protection system, leaving hundreds of thousands of people stranded with no clear pathway to asylum. He escalated the use of criminal prosecutions against those crossing irregularly into the United States and declared a national emergency to justify military deployment for immigration enforcement. His administration's 'mass deportation' strategy is designed to not just deter but punish those seeking safety. The measures taken by this administration not only create significant barriers to due process but also increase the likelihood that vulnerable individuals will be returned to situations where they face serious harm.
Trump's executive orders also feature racist and transphobic rhetoric and tropes that seek to demonize migrants as criminals and embolden racism, xenophobia, and transphobia. From his claims that migrants are "poisoning the blood of our country," to his shocking tolerance for white supremacy in Charlottesville in 2017, there have been real consequences to Trump's racist and violent rhetoric. The absurd lie repeated by President Trump and Vice President JD Vance during their campaign that erroneously claimed Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating household pets provoked a flurry of white supremacist threats towards the community and resulted in dozens of bomb threats effectively shutting down the city.
Terminologies such as "illegal aliens" and "invasion" are repeatedly used in the executive orders and, no doubt, aim to denigrate, and dehumanize the people being targeted. The orders will only fuel hate and lead to further scapegoating of migrants, illegal racial profiling, and over-policing of immigrant communities.
Currently, arbitrary detention, prolonged incarceration, and systemic violations of human rights are not the exception but the rule. Meanwhile, the fallout from Trump's cruel family separation policy from his first term are still being felt. To this day, an untold number of children remain separated from their families. Yet on his first day back in office, Trump dismantled the task force dedicated to reuniting these children with their parents.
Equally alarming is the fact that his executive orders include a dangerous precedent to strip the human rights of transgender and non-binary communities, an act that will no doubt impact members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community seeking asylum in the US and put trans people at grave risk, including risk of statelessness.
While I recognize and appreciate UNHCR's diplomatic engagement with the US administration, given the full gravity of the situation, it is essential that any country who is a signatory to the 1967 Protocol related to the Status of Refugees properly observes refugee laws including the principles of non-refoulement.
More than ever, asylum seekers depend on the international community's ability to hold states accountable for their obligations. I trust that the UNHCR will act with the moral clarity and urgency that has long defined its mission.
I appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to your office's forthcoming determinations on this pressing issue.
Sincerely,
Jenny Kwan
NDP Critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Member of Parliament for Vancouver East
