HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Members of the Russian asylum-seeking community on Guam once again took up protest Saturday morning over their inability to leave the island for the States. The protest comes after a two-week hunger strike at Adelup. This time, demonstrations took place just beyond the steps of the District Court of Guam.
“It’s the place where foreigners become citizens,” said asylum-seeker Fedor Simanov. “It’s very important for us because we applied for protection from the United States. We urge United States government to help us, to restore justice, to make improvements to that (asylum) process. Because people stay here for years, five years, and it’s very sad.”
Long delays in the adjudication of asylum claims have meant years in limbo for asylum-seekers on Guam.
At the same time, travel to the states is barred as the asylum-seekers are found inadmissible under the pre-inspection process because their cases are pending and they do not yet have legal status. This leaves them without the option to travel stateside for work, medical care or any other purpose.
“This is the precise place where asylum-seekers should be protesting because the federal government has been creating a lot of difficulties and, honestly, a lot of suffering for asylum-seekers in Guam,” said Chris Rasmussen, assistant professor of history at the University of Guam. “What the asylum seekers want and what they deserve is the right to seek asylum and the right to move. Right now, they’re being denied both.”
Rasmussen said the asylum-seekers don’t have advance parole, a type of authorization that could allow travel to the States while waiting for claims to be adjudicated. But the federal government could remedy that immediately if it wanted, as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have significant latitude to grant advance parole, Rasmussen added.
Moreover, the professor highlighted the federal government’s failure to address asylum claims in general and called the issue a “moral stain” that federal authorities need to acknowledge and immediately remedy.
“(The U.S.) haven’t been processing claims. And honestly, a whole lot more people, particularly on the southern (U.S.) border…this is a massive problem that has not changed at all. The same policies, that were in place before the Biden administration came in, are still in place right now and denying asylum-seekers safety and refuge,” Rasmussen said.
Russian asylum-seekers hold various signs as they protest in front of the District Court of Guam on Saturday, April 3, 2021.
Photo by John O’Connor/The Guam Daily Post
Russian asylum-seekers say they are urging the U.S. government to improve its asylum process.
Photo by John O’Connor/The Guam Daily Post
