Examining Title 42 and the Need to Restore Asylum at the Border

Testimony of Kennji Kizuka

Associate Director of Research and Analysis for Refugee Protection, Human Rights First

U.S. House, Committee on Homeland Security

Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations

“Examining Title 42 and the Need to Restore Asylum at the Border”

April 6, 2022

Chairwoman Barragán, Ranking Member Higgins, and distinguished members of the Subcommittee:

On behalf of Human Rights First, I thank you for the opportunity to testify on the Title 42 policy and the need to restore asylum at the southern U.S. border. Human Rights First is an independent, non-profit advocacy organization that for more than four decades has pressed the United States to take a leading role in promoting and defending human rights. The organization was founded in 1978, at a time when the United States was jailing and seeking to deport refugees fleeing repression in El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and the Soviet Union, among other countries. Human Rights First worked with members of Congress to pass the landmark 1980 Refugee Act, which established a legal framework for refugee protection. In our research and advocacy, we work with asylum seekers, attorneys, and other human rights organizations to ensure U.S. compliance with domestic refugee law and international treaty obligations, and our refugee representation team recruits and trains lawyers to provide pro bono legal representation to asylum seekers. Over the years, Human Rights First has helped thousands of refugees to receive asylum.