As Biden added, “The America I see values basic human decency, not snatching children from their parents or turning our back on refugees at our border,” he said. “The American people understand…because it makes us an embarrassment. The American people know, overwhelmingly that it is not right. That it is not who we are.”

While U.S. policies block many refugees from entering the country based on arbitrary or prejudicial criteria, Asylum remains a federal protection from persecution or fear from persecution. Individuals may file on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Asylum has actually saved the lives of multiple high profile figures.

Here are seven famous asylum seekers:

1. Albert Einstein (physicist)

The Nobel Prize-winning scientist fled Germany in 1933 in order to escape persecution from the Nazis. After his safe arrival in the. U.S., Einstein notably said, “I shall live in a land where political freedom, tolerance, and equality of all citizens reign.”

2. Mila Kunis (actress)

Kunis and her family fled Soviet Ukraine during the Cold War. That 70s Show actress was seven years old when she was granted a refugee visa.

3. Gloria Estefan (singer)

Born in Havana, Cuba, the “Queen of Latin Pop” fled the country with her family when she was just two years old. After Fidel Castro led the Communist revolution in 1959, her family moved to Miami.

4. Madeleine Albright (former Secretary of State)

Born in 1937 in what was then Czechoslovakia, her family fled Nazi persecution during World War II. Although they attempted to return, they had to leave permanently in 1948. She later became the first female Secretary of State.

5. Henry Kissinger (former Secretary of State)

After spending the first 15 years of his life in Germany, his family fled in 1938 during the early years of the Holocaust.

6. Marlene Dietrich (actress)

The Hollywood beauty started her film career in Germany in the 1920s. When the Nazis gained power, she fled to Hollywood, where she became an American citizen and made a point to perform for troops during World War II. Later, she said, “America took me into her bosom when I no longer had a native country worthy of the name.”

7. Regina Spektor (singer)

After being raised in Moscow, the singer’s family fled the Soviet Union when she was nine years old in fear of religious persecution. They settled in New York, where Spektor would later begin her singing career

This week, immigrant advocacy groups lobbied to block an order under the Trump administration that would force asylum seekers to stay in Mexico until their case files were seen in immigration courts. Based on the fact that lives could be endangered if the order were executed, the group stated that asylum seekers “are being returned to Mexico without any meaningful consideration of the dangers they face there, including the very real threat that Mexican authorities will return them to the countries they fled to escape persecution and torture.” The federal courts have yet to make a decision on overturning the order.

Meg Hanson is a Brooklyn-based writer, teacher, and jaywalker. Find Meg at her website and on Twitter @megsoyung.