Amy Torres, Executive Director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, joins Steve Adubato for a conversation about the ending of Title 42, our nation’s asylum crisis, and the need for immigration reform. Recorded 6/20/23

Steve Adubato asks Amy Torres about the state of Title 42 and immigration enforcement. Torres responds, “I think it’s really important to understand that colloquially we use words like refugee and asylum seeker to describe people who are fleeing for their own safety, trying to protect themselves, trying to protect their loved ones. It’s important to understand that in U.S immigration policy these words refugee, asylee, they’re very restrictive coded definitions that change over time and we saw that with title 42 right. There was a real restriction on the internationally recognized right to asylum, there were barriers put in place that made it very difficult to file for asylum. We saw it again when title 42 ended and the Biden Administration proposed their own new restrictions that in many ways went further than title 42, to make it even more difficult to file for asylum, to come to the U.S and stay here and seek safety. I think we’ve heard a lot over the last few months about a border crisis, or a migration crisis. Really what we’re facing in the United States is a policy crisis. We have a deeply broken immigration system that means that it’s more difficult than ever to try to come to the United States, and even more difficult once you’re here to be able to legally stay here.”