Mufalo Chitam, Executive Director of MIRC
Portland, ME — The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition condemns two harmful Supreme Court decisions that will put immigrant families, workers, and communities at greater risk.
In Mullin v. Al Otro Lado, the Court ruled that asylum seekers are not entitled to seek asylum at a port of entry unless they have physically crossed into the United States. In practical terms, this allows the federal government to turn people away at the border before they can even begin the asylum process, forcing people fleeing danger to wait in unsafe conditions or attempt even more dangerous routes.
In Mullin v. Doe, the Court allowed the federal government to move forward with terminating Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians who have been lawfully living and working in the United States. TPS exists because the federal government has recognized that certain countries are too unsafe for people to return to because of war, instability, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions. Ending these protections will destabilize families, workplaces, and communities across the country.
“These rulings are devastating. They will be felt by families who followed the rules, registered with the government, passed background checks, paid fees, built lives here, and became part of our communities. They will also be felt by the asylum seekers who are being told that the door to protection can be shut before they are even allowed to ask for safety,” said Mufalo Chitam, Executive Director of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.
MIRC opposes these rulings because they weaken long-standing humanitarian protections, expand the federal government’s ability to deny safety to people fleeing harm, and threaten to strip legal status and work authorization from people who are deeply rooted in this country. Nothing about these decisions makes our communities safer. Instead, they make families more vulnerable, workers easier to exploit, and local economies less stable.
These decisions will not stay at the border or in Washington, D.C. They will affect people here in Maine who are working, raising families, attending school, contributing to local economies, and helping sustain the communities we all depend on. When federal policy strips people of protection or blocks access to asylum, the consequences reach our schools, workplaces, hospitals, places of worship, and neighborhoods.
MIRC will release a fuller analysis in the coming days. For now, we call on Maine’s federal delegation and every member of Congress to act immediately to protect TPS holders, defend access to asylum, and create permanent pathways to safety and stability for immigrant communities.