The US hired me to protect refugees. Now it tells me to abandon them.
The following opinion piece was written by Jason Marks, an asylum training officer with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. It was published by the Washington Post on 7 August 2020.
In ordinary times, my colleagues and I sit at our desks in places like Malaysia, Turkey and Nauru. Across from us, three feet away, sits an applicant for asylum — sometimes alone, sometimes with a spouse or children. Some have waited decades for this moment. We review their files — filled with detailed accounts of their lives, biometric data, family histories and more — and listen to their testimonies. They are the luckiest of the most vulnerable, because after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees referred them for resettlement in the United States, they were granted this interview. Out of the tens of millions of refugees worldwide, less than 0.25 percent are resettled in another country.
Even on the listening side of the desk, each story of assault and injury, the fear and grief in people’s voices, shook me to my core. Still, I always considered the refugee corps a dream job. It has been a privilege to safeguard our country’s legacy as a haven for the persecuted.
Right now, though, our desks sit empty, and our lifesaving work has come to a standstill. The past few years of executive orders, regulations and proclamations have made it virtually impossible for refugee and asylum officers to do our jobs and offer protection to those who need it. [Read more here.]
