Topic: U.S. Border Response

HIAS works on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to provide services to asylum seekers. We are also providing extensive community education to asylum seekers, including “Know Your Rights” presentations, and remote meetings with experienced asylum attorneys.

HIAS has offices in Mexico in Juarez, Matamoros, Mexicali, Mexico City, Monterrey, Nuevo Laredo, Queretaro, Palenque, Reynosa, and Tijuana. We are providing people with legal services and information — including legal assistance for asylum in the U.S. and Mexico, legal representation to stay in Mexico, and Know Your Rights workshops — and mental health services and gender-based violence prevention as well. We also provide legal services in Matamoros. HIAS works with partners on the U.S. side of the border for true cross-border collaboration.
HIAS is proud to have placed Border Fellows in non-profit legal organizations along the southern border to increase their capacity to provide legal representation to asylum seekers in and out of detention. Right now HIAS has five active fellows: one fellow is working out of our affiliate, JFS San Diego; one fellow is working with Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas; and one fellow is at South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR) in Brownsville, Texas. Also, Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Tucson and Nogales, Arizona as well as Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) in Laredo, Texas now have HIAS Fellows.
We are still actively recruiting volunteers to help asylum seekers remotely. Spanish-speaking and Haitian Kreyol-speaking individuals can volunteer to provide remote document translation to assist asylum seekers in preparing necessary evidence for their asylum cases. You will receive training on how to translate these documents, and must commit to completing three translations over six months. If you or anyone you know is interested, please apply here. Additionally, Spanish-speaking volunteers can join Proyecto Compañeros, a virtual accompaniment project serving asylum seekers enrolled in the MPP (“Remain in Mexico”) program. Volunteers will meet with their matches bi-weekly for up to three months and provide them with friendship, support, non-legal information, and translation assistance. If you or anyone you know is interested in joining Proyecto Compañeros as a volunteer, please complete an application. Find out more and sign up here. If you are a lawyer interested in helping, please see our Pro Bono page to learn more.
You can access Know Your Rights videos for people in the MPP program here in: Spanish, Portuguese, Mam (Indigenous Guatemalan language), K’iche/Quiché (Indigenous Guatemalan language) Here is information in Spanish about the Prompt Asylum Claim Review (PACR) and Asylum Cooperation Agreement (ACA) programs.
We continue to mobilize the Jewish community to be a strong, persistent moral voice in support of fair, humane treatment of asylum seekers and we engage in asylum advocacy in Washington.

Find out about ways to take action for refugees and asylum seekers here.

See the stories below for how HIAS has been working to help asylum seekers at the border since the crisis started.

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Mar 2, 2023

The Biden Administration’s “Asylum Ban,” Explained

Mar 2, 2023

On February 21, the Biden Administration proposed a series of policies which together, advocates claim, would result in a virtual asylum ban at the U.S.-Mexico border. HIAS Vice President for U.S. Policy and Advocacy Naomi Steinberg explains what this means and how it would impact asylum seekers.

Activists protest a proposed rule that would limit access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border at a rally at the White House. | The Biden Administration’s “Asylum Ban,” Explained - HIAS

Feb 21, 2023

Biden Administration’s Proposed Asylum Ban is Harmful and Inhumane, HIAS Says

Feb 21, 2023

HIAS is condemning proposed policies introduced today by the Biden administration that would amount to a virtual asylum ban. The change would deny access to protection to most people who have not already applied for protection in any other country they passed through on their journey to the United States, or to those who entered the United States without inspection and authorization.

Jan 10, 2023

Seeking Asylum at the U.S.-Mexico Border: New Year, Same Crisis?

Jan 10, 2023

On January 5, the Biden administration announced that Title 42 — the public health order that was invoked by the Trump administration at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, which in essence stops most people from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border — would be expanded.

Seeking Asylum at the U.S.-Mexico Border: New Year, Same Crisis?

Jan 5, 2023

HIAS: Biden Plan for Cuban, Haitian, and Nicaraguan Asylum Seekers Outrageously Inequitable

Jan 5, 2023

HIAS assailed President Biden’s deeply flawed and outrageously inequitable plan to expand Title 42 border expulsions of asylum seekers and allow up to 30,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua who have sponsors in the U.S. to enter the country temporarily as humanitarian parolees – but only if they fly to U.S. airports.

Dec 23, 2022

Hope, Faith, and Life at the Border: Rabbis Bear Witness

Dec 23, 2022

In a moment when asylum seekers and other migrants are frequently regarded as threats, HIAS and T’ruah brought rabbis to the U.S.-Mexico border to speak to the moral imperative at the heart of this issue: recognizing the humanity of those seeking safety in the United States.

Hope, Faith, and Life at the Border: Rabbis Bear Witness

Dec 14, 2022

2022 in Review: War in Ukraine Adds to Record Displacement Worldwide

Dec 14, 2022

2022 will likely be remembered in the refugee world as one of the worst crises ever, as the war in Ukraine continues to shape the global response to millions of displaced people. Take a look back at the Ukraine crisis and other pivotal moments of the year.