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Women’s Commission Opposes Moving Asylum Functions to Department of Homeland Security

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Sees Grave Threat to Asylum Seekers and Refugees

The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children strongly opposes moving asylum-related functions to the Department of Homeland Security, contending that such a move would threaten the ability of asylum seekers and refugees to seek safe haven in the United States. As the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration meets Wednesday to consider immigration reform and the reorganization of Homeland Defense, the Women’s Commission urges Congress to consider several alternatives that would ensure U.S. protection of refugees while at the same time safeguarding our national security.

"The Administration’s proposed ‘Homeland Security Act of 2002’ would jeopardize the United States’ rich tradition of welcoming asylum seekers and refugees to our shores by transferring responsibility for all immigration-related functions to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the implementation of U.S. asylum policy," says Wendy Young, Director of Government Relations and U.S. Programs, Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. "There’s no question that DHS’s primary mandate of reducing terrorism is a critical national priority, but one very different from our commitment to protecting refugees, which defines us as a people and makes our nation unique."

To ensure that the United States maintains its long-held dedication to the protection of refugees, the Women’s Commission urges Congress to consider the following changes to the Homeland Security Act:

• Create an independent commission, the Commission for Immigration Review, to house the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) and the INS Asylum Corps as an alternative to folding both departments into DHS

The EOIR, which adjudicates deportation proceedings, including those for individuals seeking asylum, is now housed within the Department of Justice. "If EOIR is moved to DHS, the department’s primary focus on national security will likely create a bias against asylum seekers, especially those who are Muslim or come from countries suspected of supporting terrorism," says Young. "This approach could have tragic consequences for asylum seekers fleeing human rights abuses inflicted by the very same regimes that the United States has targeted as threats to our national security."

A similar conflict of interest would occur if the asylum corps of the INS Office of International Affairs were moved into DHS. "Like EOIR, there is a tremendous danger that decisions by asylum officers would be unduly influenced by national security concerns if the asylum corps were transferred to DHS," Young says. Folding the asylum corps into the proposed Commission for Immigration Review would also create efficiencies by consolidating decision making and standard setting in asylum cases within one independent agency.

• Transfer custody of asylum seekers to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) seven days after a person is apprehended by DHS

Each year, thousands of asylum seekers, including women and children, are detained in harsh conditions for prolonged periods pending the outcome of their asylum proceedings.

"Despite its authority to parole asylum seekers, the INS approaches the detention of asylum seekers with an overwhelming bias on the side of law enforcement, resulting in the unnecessary incarceration of refugees," says Young. "As with the asylum adjudication process, this bias is likely to become worse if authority to detain asylum seekers is transferred to DHS."

If the person is found not to be a threat to the U.S. and has a credible fear of persecution, the Women’s Commission recommends that they be transferred to ORR, which is within the Department of Health and Human Services and has been playing a key role in the integration of refugees in the U.S. for nearly three decades.

• Shift the care and custody of unaccompanied children to the Office of Refugee Resettlement

The INS detains approximately 5,000 unaccompanied children each year, often in harsh conditions for prolonged periods; more than one-third are imprisoned in juvenile jails, although most have not committed a crime. The INS increasingly has been criticized for its heavy-handed treatment of children and lack of expertise in addressing their critical service and protection needs. It is likely that these abuses would not only continue, but worsen, if such functions were absorbed into DHS, which would not have the expertise to deal with child welfare responsibilities. With its decades of experience working with children, ORR is ideally suited to assume the care and custody of unaccompanied alien children.

"There’s no reason that our security as a nation has to come at the expense of refugees and legitimate asylum seekers who are looking to the United States for protection from persecution," Young says. "We must not turn our back on those who, like their predecessors more than two hundred years ago, came to this country in search of freedom and justice. With the Homeland Security Act of 2002, however, we’re in danger of doing just that."

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Expert from the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children available for interviews:

Wendy Young, Director of Government Relations and US Programs
Tel: 703-560-2621; after 12pm on Wednesday, June 26: 571-244-6600

Please contact Megan McKenna 212-551-0959 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.