18 Reasons why refugees have a right to asylum

1. Why do refugees
have a right to seek
asylum in the U.S.?

2. Because humans have migrated for the past 70
thousand years.

3. Because all humans have a legal and moral
right to seek safety and a decent life.
• Article 14 of the U.N. Declaration of Human
Rights declares:
• “Everyone has the right to seek and to
enjoy in other countries asylum from
persecution.”

4. Because the U.S.’s southern border was
created by an illegal and immoral war.
1846 the U.S. illegally
invades Mexico, seizes half
of Mexico’s land.

5. Because the U.S. has repeatedly invaded countries,
violating their borders – especially Mexico and
Central America, to impose its will on them.
• 1846 the U.S.
illegally invades
Mexico, seizes half of
Mexico’s land.
1855 U.S. mercenary
William Walker
institutes slavery in
Nicaragua.
1856 U.S. intervenes
in Panama to protect
U.S. railroad
interests.
1895 U.S. Marines
land in Colombia,
prelude to separating
Panama.
1903 U.S. Marines
intervene in a
Honduran revolution.
1905 U.S. Marines
invade Mexico to help
Mexican dictator
Porfidio Diaz.
1907 U.S. Marines
intervene in
Honduran conflict.
1911 U.S. troops
invade Honduras
to protect U.S.
interests in a civil
conflict.
1912 - 1933 U.S.
troops occupy
Nicaragua to protect
a pro-U.S. regime.
1914 U.S. bombs and
occupies Veracruz,
Mexico in a dispute
with the Mexican
government.

6. Because the U.S. has repeatedly invaded countries,
violating their borders – especially Mexico and Central
America, to impose its will on them.
1925 U.S. troops
used to suppress
strike in Panama.
1929 U.S. establishes
military academy in
Nicaragua to train
National Guard.
1932 U.S. warships
sent to El Salvador
during a rebellion.
1933 U.S. troops
leave Nicaragua with
Somoza head of
National Guard. 1941 Panama
President Arias ousted
in a coup approved by
the U.S.
1954 U.S. CIA overthrows elected
Guatemala president Arbenz Guzman.
200,000 people were murdered by pro-
U.S. regimes in following years.
1958 U.S. troops used
during Panamanian
protests.
1960 U.S. Marines and
warships sent to
Guatemala to protect
pro-U.S. President
1964 U.S. troops
shoot Panamanians
demanding a return
of the Panama Canal
to Panama’s control.
Fascist Guatemalan generals put in power by CIA.

7. Because the U.S. has repeatedly invaded countries,
violating their borders – especially Mexico and Central
America, to impose its will on them.
1961 U.S. CIA
organizes
unsuccessful
invasion of Cuba at
the Bay of Pigs to
destroy the
revolution.
1980 -1990 U.S.
armed and
organized a
terrorist campaign,
the Contra war,
against the
Sandinista
government of
Nicaragua.
1981 Omar Torrijos, Panama’s
president, after refusing to
cooperate with U.S. banking
interests, dies in a suspicious
plane crash.
1982 Rios Montt, a fanatical
Christian fascist with strong
support of the U.S. becomes
Guatemala’s President.
1989 U.S. bombs and invades
Panama to depose President
Manuel Noriega, which has
all the appearances of a giant
Mafia hit job.
2009 The Honduran military with support
from the U.S. carried out a coup against the
elected government of Manuel Zelaya.
1978 – 1981 35.000
Salvadorans killed by U.S.
backed counter- insurgency.

8. Because the U.S. has repeatedly interfered in these
countries, overthrowing reform governments, weakening
civil society and corrupting governing institutions.

9. Because U.S. businesses have used this as an
opening for exploiting these countries.

10. Because climate change, for which the U.S. bears a
significant responsibility, is ruining farmers and
intensifying crisis in that region.

11. Because parents have the right to
seek protection for their children.

12. Because women have the right to seek shelter
from abuse in a patriarchal society.

13. Because all people have a right to be free from racial,
ethnic, sexual, cultural or gender persecution.

14. Because as beneficiaries of the wealth plundered from
these countries, we have a responsibility to those who
have suffered as a result.

15. Because the U.S. economy could not function without
the contribution of immigrants, a fact that this
country’s leaders refuse to acknowledge.

16. Because we have a
moral
responsibility to
each other as
human beings.

17. Because fascism rides in on the back of
racial and ethnic prejudice.

18. Because a society that turns its back on people
in dire need, is not a society worth living in.

19. Porque una sociedad que da la espalda a los mas necesitados
es una sociedad en la cual no vale la pena vivir.

20. There is no good future for humanity in a world
that allows moral barbarism to prevail.

21. Because emigration is a courageous act.
European immigrants
Mexican immigrants
Filipino immigrants Guatemalan immigrants
European immigrants

22. Because immigrants broaden our understanding
and enrich society in multiple ways.