WP4 Portfolio Project: Email to President Biden

Dear President Biden,

My name is Ryan Chu, and I’m from Westlake Village, California. I currently attend the University of Southern California, and I’ve taken a great interest in what your administration has been doing in regards to immigration during the time of a global pandemic.

I’m writing today to urge you to rescind the Title 42 expulsion order. This is a Trump-era policy that was interpreted in light of COVID-19 to rapidly expel immigrants from Haiti, Mexico, and many Central American countries and prevent them from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump and his administration weaponized this policy in order to target potential asylum seekers and lower the number of people entering the United States dramatically, and masked it all as a safety precaution to protect ourselves from COVID risk.

I voted for you because I knew you could bring change to this policy which is in violation of international refugee law. While allowing unaccompanied children exemption from Title 42 was a step in the right direction, I ask you to please rescind the order entirely as it’s immoral and illegal to send asylum seekers back into the hands of their persecutors, which is exactly what Title 42 permits. Now that you are in power, I hope that you can restore due process and justice to those who are seeking a better life at the border. Thank you for your time.

Ryan

This was another letter I sent that followed a template provided by the organization I signed up with.

I’m writing today to urge you to immediately rescind the Title 42 border expulsion order — the Trump-era policy that expels asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

There is no public health justification for this practice — even during a pandemic — it was used by your predecessor as a way to weaponize the coronavirus against those seeking asylum in the United States from horrific violence. Even top officials from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention have stated that the order “lacked a public health basis” and was “not motivated by public health concerns.” (https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/research/program-forced-migration-...)

Please, I strongly urge you to swiftly end the Title 42 order and stop putting asylum seekers into even more danger by immediately expelling them back to Mexico and their home countries, and to welcome them with dignity.

Sincerely,

Ryan Chu

I also plan to join some groups that help bring food and water to Tijuana during the Spring and I explained the situation to some of my friends and my family so that they could also write a letter to the White House.