Congressional Hispanic Caucus Response to SCOTUS Decision Allowing the Trump Administration to Enforce New Restrictions on Asylum Seekers while Legal Battles Continue

WASHINGTON— Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, released the following statement on the Supreme Court's decision allowing the Trump Administration to impose it's "asylum ban" against those seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border while US litigation plays out:

"I strongly disagree with the Supreme Court's decision to allow the Trump Administration to implement its inhumane ‘asylum ban' while it continues to be litigated in the courts. This will surely worsen the humanitarian crisis along the border that this Administration created through their many cruel and even illegal policies driven by hate and racism.

"Because of this decision, tens of thousands of families - including Central Americans, Venezuelans, and LGBTQ individuals - will now be denied asylum. This decision means that asylum protections will be out of reach for the families that need them most. They will be trapped at the border with nowhere to go, vulnerable to violence, kidnapping, extortion, rape, and murder.

"What happened to ‘give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses?' Many of our own ancestors were immigrants and asylum seekers. Now, the Trump Administration is closing the door on families like them, families who came here seeking safety and a better life for their children. We cannot allow this Administration to trample on our American values and abandon these families in favor of their extremist, anti-immigrant agenda."

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The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), founded in December 1976, is organized as a Congressional Member organization, governed under the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives. The CHC is dedicated to voicing and advancing, through the legislative process, issues affecting Hispanics in the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories.