International Mayan League 1201 K St. NW Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 827-6673 Email: info@mayanleague.org www.mayanleague.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 15, 2023 | 11 B’atz Contact: Lorena Brady, lorena@mayanleague.org (571) 305-2801 Refugees, Immigrants & Asylum Seekers are Under Attack, #SaveAsylum Now! Piscataway Nation Territory (Washington, D.C.): The International Mayan League condemns the extremist immigration policies proposed by the Biden Administration. The ongoing supplemental funding negotiations are using our peoples’ human rights in exchange for military funding to advance foreign intervention and genocide around the world. As former political refugees and asylum seekers, many who fled state sponsored genocide in Guatemala; we will never forget the U.S. government’s complicity in the genocide of Maya peoples in Iximulew (Guatemala) nor the State of Israel’s role in the selling of weapons and military training leading to war crimes during the internal armed conflict. The systemic oppression and discrimination that killed, disappeared and displaced hundreds of thousands of Indigenous Peoples during the war remain at the core of root drivers that force Maya, Garifuna, Xinka and Latine families, women and children to flee and seek refuge in the United States. Indigenous Peoples know all too well that deterrence policies like Title 42 or mandatory detention DO NOT WORK, they KILL OUR PEOPLES as happened during the Trump administration and has continued under President Biden. Children, explicitly Indigenous children, are some of the most victimized and vulnerable to human rights violations under the U.S. government immigration system. We remind the Biden Administration and Congress that six Indigenous children and youth died at the hands of U.S. federal agents or in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from May 2018 to late May of 2019 - there was never justice! How will Indigenous Peoples and communities be affected by these proposed policies? 1. Raising the threshold to meet the credible fear interview (CFI) standard, will lead to the following human rights violations: a. Widespread denial of Indigenous Peoples’ basic right to identify as an Indigenous person, due to erroneous misclassification as Latino/Hispanic; b. Indigenous language exclusion hindering due process rights; c. Increased expedited removal of Indigenous asylum seekers due to an inability to communicate in Spanish or English and prove credible fear. 2. Nationwide expedited removal targeting undocumented people will create fear, accelerate racial profiling and criminalization of immigrant communities, separate families, and rip apart the fabric of refugee and immigrant communities. 3. Any policy resembling Title 42 expulsions or an asylum transit ban will be disastrous. Forcing Indigenous Peoples to seek refuge and apply for asylum in the very countries that systematically persecute them, is a death sentence.
The Biden Administration should instead take into consideration the many recommendations that are being provided by human rights and immigrant organizations. From an Indigenous human rights’ framework, we have provided the following key recommendations in various statements, comments on proposed rules, or directly to the White House Family Reunification Taskforce including: A. The United States Government must comply with domestic law and international agreements that it is a party to and uphold the human right to Asylum for all people; B. Guarantee Indigenous Peoples’ right to their Indigenous identity, membership or Citizenship to an Indigenous nation at first point of contact; C. Respect Indigenous Peoples’ right to their cultures and languages and provide Indigenous language interpreters. Anti-asylum policies that violate domestic and international asylum law will continue to result in tragedy. Biden’s legacy on immigration will be cemented as one of the most extreme and abhorrent in history if ANY of these proposed policies move forward. WE MUST #SAVEASYLUM NOW
About the International Mayan League The International Mayan League is the only Maya women and youth-led, grassroots Maya organization in the United States and is located in Piscataway Nation Territory (Washington, D.C.). We were founded in 1991 by Maya refugees fleeing the war and genocide in Guatemala with allies from the Sanctuary Movement. Our purpose is to unite Maya peoples and allies in the United States (U.S.), educate on the root causes of forced migration, offer a platform to advance and protect the human rights of the Maya people, and assist in the inclusion of Maya leaders and other Indigenous peoples in decision making spaces that affect our peoples, communities, and futures; in particular, the Maya diaspora.