1201 K St NW
Washington, D.C. 20005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9, 2023
Andrea Flores International Mayan League (202) 827-6673
info@mayanleague.org
Phone: (202) 827-6673
Email: info@mayanleague.org
www.mayanleague.org
THE MAYAN LEAGUE DENOUNCES THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S PROPOSED ASYLUM BAN AND FAMILY DETENTION CENTERS
Piscataway Nation Territory (Washington, D.C.) – For many years the International Mayan League has been denouncing what has been happening at the U.S. / Mexico border, and the necessity to adopt a more humanitarian approach within immigration policies. The Joe Biden administration promised to implement a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system that would uphold its duty to asylum seekers and refugees. Instead, the Administration is considering an asylum ban and reviving the practice of detaining migrant families trying to cross the border.
For Indigenous peoples, root causes of migration like conflicts over lands, territories and natural resources, which expels or forces them to leave their homelands, has proven to have disastrous impacts. As the recent report by the New York Times indicates, unaccompanied minors most of them from Guatemala, and most likely Indigenous–who have been released by the Biden administration, have been exploited by companies that have been illegally hiring them.
Our recommendations:
1. More detention centers ARE NOT the solution. They will exacerbate the problem. The Biden administration mustdevelopamorehumaneprocessformigrantsto apply forasylum.Thisincludes offering interpretation services for Indigenous migrants who don't speak English or Spanish. Many migrants coming from Central America and Mexico are Indigenous, and they have specific needs and rights, such as Indigenous language interpretation, and adequate mental health services.
2. Theadministration MUSTunderstand therootcausesofmigration.MostIndigenousmigrantsdon’t leave the country because they want to, but because of the structural violence they experience by governments and corporations in the countries they’re coming from. For example, as we speak, the Q’eqchi’Mayapeoplearebeing forcibly evicted from theirterritoriesand communitiesto giveway to an aggressive expansion of mines, dams, and export crop plantations that are devastating local resources, livelihoods, and causing environmental destruction. Many of those evicted, unfortunately, have no option but to flee to the United States. We know this because at the Mayan League we have received many requests for Q’eqchi’ Maya Interpretation for asylum cases from diverse organizations across the country.
3. Consult with Indigenous leaders, authorities, and organizations in the home countries, and in the U.S. about the possible solution to the immigration crisis, as well as holding accountable corporations that have been doing all the damage abroad, but also in the interior United States.
4. Lastly, we ask the Biden administration to release information about the whereabouts of the more than 85,000 unaccompanied minors that were released by the administration in 2021.