Portland, a port for all or for the few?
Authors: Brenna Fawson and George Bonoan
On June 4, 2024, President Biden issued a proclamation halting asylum requests at the border once the average number of weekly apprehensions reaches 2,500. The new standard of proof asylum seekers have to provide at the border demonstrating that their life or safety is threatened is now stricter than it was under President Trump’s 2018 ban.
Asylum seekers arrive in Oregon almost every day. At present, these families and individuals primarily come from central Africa (Angola, Congo) and Latin America (Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, Haiti), fleeing from their homelands where they have experienced hardships from lack of jobs and education, to war, genocide, torture, extortion, and abuse.
Despite the existence of Oregon’s sanctuary laws, asylum seekers have had to contend with every level of government–from federal to local–dodging responsibility for their well-being. Our state, county, and city officials made headlines the last few months over empty promises and no plans to meet the basic needs of the migrants arriving in Oregon who have nowhere else to go.
Many city and state politicians ran on platforms welcoming immigrants with open arms. How long can asylum seekers–some of our most vulnerable community members–wait for long-promised shelter and services?
Source: The Oregonian
Source: Portland Mercury
These migrants, many of whom are children, face the unfortunate reality of an already burdened housing and shelter system in a state with the nation’s third-highest rate of homelessness.
What are asylum seekers and why do they come to Oregon?
Asylum status provides a complex path to U.S. citizenship for people fleeing another country. Upon arrival at a U.S. border, asylum seekers must make the case that they’re facing persecution over race, religion, nationality, political opinions, or membership in a particular social group.
Asylum differs from refugee status primarily in terms of process–refugee status is sought from outside the U.S. while asylum is applied for only once at a U.S. border–and access to services. Ultimately, however, these different statuses are manufactured by the U.S. government. In both cases, abuse, persecution, and crises force adults and children to migrate away from their homelands.
The asylum process can take years to complete and involves navigating the justice system and filling out complicated paperwork. While waiting for their applications to be processed, asylum seekers are left in legal limbo without many of the rights and protections citizens have.
In 1987, Oregon became the nation’s first sanctuary state. This status prohibits local and state law enforcement officers from working with federal immigration agents on immigration enforcement. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, 15,100 people filed asylum paperwork in Oregon from 2000 to 2022.
In spite of the safety that sanctuary laws are meant to provide, Oregon has a troubling track record of human rights abuses when it comes to people seeking asylum. In 2018, 124 asylum seekers were “secretly” transferred from the border to a federal prison an hour southwest of Portland. According to the Oregon ACLU, the migrants hailed from 16 different countries and were prohibited from meeting with attorneys until a federal judge intervened.
Source: Seattle Times
Asylum seekers in Oregon still face tremendous barriers and hoops as programs and funding have waxed and waned over the years. This has thrown hundreds of people into a state of flux as they move between hotels, transitional housing, and living on the streets.
Two years ago, Oregon launched an initiative called the “Welcome Center” to provide hotel accommodations, food and resources for immigrants seeking asylum. Over the course of 14 months, the hotel provided housing to 469 people before it was inexplicably suspended at the end of 2023.
There is now no centralized location for people to access services or essential resources, leaving many in a difficult place of having to navigate a foreign system in order to get their most basic needs met. When the program ended, the evaluation report did not offer solutions, only a simple recommendation for “a long-term plan for Oregon’s immigrant services infrastructure.”
Source: KGW
This crisis made headlines this past spring when Multnomah County ended funding for a program housing 20 families (80 asylum seekers, 30 of whom were children under the age of 12), who suddenly faced living on the streets (Source: KGW). Community members, grassroots organizations, and nonprofits have been fronting the costs of keeping the migrants housed. The back-and-forth between the County funding and not funding emergency housing for these families has continued into June. Dedicated grassroots organizations are still the primary supporters of the migrants.
Local asylum seekers have begun voicing their collective demands with the support of grassroots organizations and networks such as the Portland formation of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA).
The recently-adopted Multnomah County budget allocates around $1.2 million for a “Newcomer Support Services Pilot program,” which is supposed to support services and emergency housing for asylum seekers. The funding is only allocated for one year and it is still unclear how funds will be disbursed.
Emma from IMA PDX told Sisters, “This one-time budget allocation is a short-term win to be built on. We know that the issues migrant communities face will continue to persist, so we uplift the ongoing needs of asylum seekers such as healthcare, work authorization and opportunities, legal and all other resources needed to support them and their families. We demand a comprehensive and fully-resourced program of support for the critical needs of all asylum seekers and the immediate processing of their status and their ability to work.”
Art by Victoria Lee buoako.com for the International Migrants Alliance
It is imperative that in examining this issue we center the families and children whose lives are fragmented and displaced by our unnecessarily wasteful and bureaucratic system. Agencies are passing the responsibility around like a hot potato in a way that bears striking similarities to how they have treated our unhoused neighbors.
We have a responsibility to uphold our promise of providing refuge to the many who enter our state and country, just as we’ve held that promise for the migrants who came before them whose descendants make up our nation today.
With the support of local grassroots organizations such as IMA and the Asylum Seeker Solidarity Collective (ASSC), migrants have been able to voice their collective demands for temporary housing, work permits and jobs, medical care, and legal help. In the face of top-to-bottom government failure, these asylum seekers have found ways to persevere together.
At the heart of our values at Sisters is dignity and self-determination. We uphold the right of asylum seekers, our unhoused neighbors, and all minoritized peoples to make decisions about their own lives and livelihoods. There is a dire need for dignified housing options for everyone in Portland, including asylum seekers and migrants. It is the very job of our government agencies and elected officials to prioritize this crisis by establishing permanent solutions that address their most immediate needs.
“We call on all grassroots migrant organizations and supporters to raise awareness and help build the grassroots organizing and leadership of asylum seekers, refugees, and all forced migrants to speak on their own behalf, design their own solutions, and build the power they need to obtain dignity and justice for all.”
Calls to action:
If you are concerned with housing issues, immigrant justice, forced migration, and want to build community power, join the campaign today: visit bit.ly/pdxasylumform or email the International Migrants Alliance - PNW at imapnw@gmail.com.
Host a family or share connections to support recently arrived families by emailing the Asylum Seeker Solidarity Collective (ASSC) at asylumsolidaritypdx@gmail.com.
Learn more:
The International Migrants Alliance (IMA) is a grassroots global alliance of migrant and refugee organizations fighting to end the root causes of forced migration. They support migrants in self organizing to struggle for their rights and welfare, and challenge imperialist globalization. Locally, IMA PNW supports grassroots migrant campaigns such as the Asylum Seekers Housing Campaign, Care for Caregivers, Solidarity for Seafarers, and is a member of the Oregon to Palestine Coalition.
The Asylum Seeker Solidarity Collective (ASSC) organizes and coordinates support alongside asylum seekers in Portland.
A statement from International Migrants Alliance - Pacific Northwest Chapter (IMAPNW)
