Dear Editor,
Recently, an asylum-seeker family was detained by Customs and Border Protection near the Vermont-Canada border. After 30 hours’ detention with little to eat or drink and mats on the ground to sleep on, the wife and three small children were released. As of this writing, the husband is in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, his fate unclear despite his and his family’s asylum case being in process. This story is frightening immigrants across Vermont.
Individuals persecuted in their own countries based on race, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation or religion have an internationally-recognized right to seek asylum elsewhere, including in the US. To ignore asylum seekers’ plight at this perilous moment risks not only their safety but also our better selves.
The majority of Vermonters’ ancestors came here to start new lives. Many of them were escaping the kind of persecution that asylum seekers flee today. The commonalities between our families’ histories and today’s asylum seekers prompt us to ask, “What if our forebears had been barred from the US, or kicked out without due process? Who would have stood up for them?”
Looking out for those in trouble is a Vermont tradition. Not that long ago, it was commonplace for folks away from home to leave their doors unlocked in case a wayfarer needed shelter overnight. By keeping our communities open and safe for asylum-seekers we honor and extend this spirit of neighborliness in our time.
Signed,
Jan Steinbauer
Underhill
Jan Steinbauer is convenor of the Vermont-New Hampshire Asylum Support Network, a collaboration of community-based nonprofit organizations, and chair of the Chittenden Asylum Seekers Assistance Network.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Jan Steinbauer: Is the Vermont tradition to welcome or to scare?.