Fulfill Immigration Justice

Dear President Biden and Vice President Harris, The obstacles against which your campaign fought and won were surmountable through the efforts of thousands of advocates who fought, believing in the humanity promised, to ensure that the tragedies of the past 4 years could become a dark but temporary step in our history. That promise and hope has faltered. The close of the campaign that spoke of respect, a love of humanity, and safe compassion has taken with it the realization of that goal. We are now negligibly closer to that goal. The past 4 years was the opposite, a demonstrably cruel agenda in which those deemed "lesser" lived in fear of the next heartbreak from those charged with creating a country in which we all can be safe. Most notable was a process which tore children from the arms of their families as they sought asylum. Mr. President, you promised this would end. You promised to recognize the humanity of migrant families seeking our protection. You have failed them. Family separations continue. Thousands of families await asylum in squalid tent cities, instead of safe in a home. Under the Trump administration, this was done under MPP, a misnomer of magnitudes for its harm. On your watch it continues as Title 42. Without an operational asylum process, people are turned away or deported to deadly circumstances. Those admitted wallow in the detriment that is our immigration detention system, which is demonstrably cruel, dehumanizing, and deadly even to young children who would have had a lifetime of opportunity, love, and hope. This system, which you continue to condone, has stolen this, and their lives. We are healthcare professionals here to call you out on these cruel policies. There is no medical justification for continuing them. Viruses recognize no borders. There is no risk substantiated by following humane asylum practices. To force families to wait in the very environments in which Covid is most likely to spread puts us all at risk. We have contributed for decades to the instability of the countries from which asylum seekers are fleeing. We have closed our door on them, forcing them from one dangerous situation to another. Anything less confirms that your election was nothing more than a selection of one evil over another. It’s time to find your voice. We are ready to bring the same energy to fight your harmful policies that we used to elevate your campaign. If that is the legacy you choose, it will not be in our name. Ask yourself if you are doing justice to the humanity of which you spoke during your campaign. You hold the pen that writes hope. Why let it simply dry up?