President Trump plans to seal off the U.S-Mexico border to migrants under a law intended to protect the country from communicable disease — a move that comes as the U.S. immigration system grinds to a halt in response to the growing coronavirus pandemic.

At a press conference Wednesday, Trump said the southern border would not close completely. But the move would allow the administration to quickly deport asylum-seekers and other migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally without due process.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and Canada have agreed to close their mutual border to all “non-essential” traffic, following earlier restrictions imposed by the Trump administration on travel from Europe and China.

The dramatic developments on the northern and southern borders come as immigration is being curtailed in other ways, too.

U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services, the agency in charge of processing green card and citizenship applications as well as conducting asylum interviews, is closing its field offices to the public. Immigrants fighting deportation are having their cases postponed as some immigration courts are limiting dockets and others are closing. Refugee resettlement is temporarily suspended as well, according to the United Nations, because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

There are about 100 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Mexico, and about 600 in Canada, compared to nearly 8,000 cases in the United States.

Immigrant advocates accuse the Trump administration of exploiting the pandemic to advance its crackdown on asylum-seekers, and the partial closure of the southern border where thousands have amassed in Mexico is sure to draw legal challenges.

“President Trump has been falsely scapegoating immigrant communities in the name of public safety since he came into office,” said Michelle Brané at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “This rule would unquestionably violate both domestic and international law and is an abdication of our moral responsibility to protect vulnerable people.”

In addition, immigrant advocates and physicians who study detention facilities are calling on U.S. authorities to release detained immigrants who pose no threat to public safety — starting with detainees who have medical conditions that put them at high risk for severe complications from COVID-19.

In immigration detention, there’s no such thing as social distancing. Detainees often live together, in large rooms with rows of cots. Immigrant advocates say that makes detention centers ideal breeding grounds for the virus.

“It is a disaster that is waiting to happen,” said Eunice Cho, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit this week seeking the release of immigrants with a range of medical problems who are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tacoma, Wash.

“Medical conditions in ICE detention facilities are inadequate in normal times,” Cho said. “These are not normal times, and ICE needs to take stock of that.”

ICE is currently holding more than 37,000 immigrants in its detention centers. Nearly half have been accused of no crime other than civil immigration violations, and many probably would not have been held under previous administrations.

ICE is scaling back its enforcement activities. In a statement, the agency says it will stop making arrests except in “mission-critical” criminal cases. The agency says it will focus on individuals who pose a public safety risk and delay other enforcement actions.

Court cases involving ICE detainees will continue, despite calls to suspend all hearings from the union representing immigration judges, prosecutors, and immigration attorneys. Hearings for immigrants who are not in detention have been postponed until April. Immigration courts in New York, Atlanta, Houston and elsewhere will close.

In a statement, ICE says it is taking precautions to protect detainees. The agency has temporarily suspended social visits at all of its detention centers. As of Tuesday, ICE says, there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in its detention facilities.

But in New Jersey, one staffer at the Elizabeth Detention Center has voluntarily self-quarantined after feeling ill, and has been tested for the COVID-19.

“It would seem to be only a matter of time before the virus makes its way into these particular settings,” said Anwen Hughes, an attorney with the nonprofit Human Rights First who represents immigrants being held in Elizabeth.

“There’s the opposite of social distancing” at the facility, Hughes said. “It’s like social piling on.”

It’s not just immigrant advocates who want to see ICE detainees released.

“A lot of people think that, well, these are, you know, controlled locked facilities and you just lock them up and seal them off and the virus isn’t going to get in. Well, it’s not that simple,” said Dr. Josiah Rich, an epidemiologist at Brown University who studies infectious disease in correctional facilities.

It’s not just the detainees who are at risk if there’s an outbreak, Rich says because an influx of sick detainees could overwhelm local medical facilities.

“So you’ll have a whole group of people that are going to be infected because of rapid spread in that correctional and detention facility,” he said. “And then all of sudden, those people will get sick all at once.”

Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/18/817965714/immigration-grinds-to-a-halt-as-president-trump-shuts-borders

The post Immigration Grinds To A Halt As President Trump Shuts Borders first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

It was never easy for migrants to win asylum cases in U.S. immigration courts. But now, it’s nearly impossible.

Out of tens of thousands of migrants who have arrived at the southern border in recent months, just 117 have been granted protection by a judge. That’s according to the latest immigration court data released Thursday by the TRAC Immigration project at Syracuse University.

The U.S. asylum system has been upended by the Remain in Mexico program, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. More than 55,000 migrants have been told to wait in Mexico under the program, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The court data released Thursday show that about 24,000 of their cases had been completed as of Nov. 19.

The success rate is less than 1%.

“It’s very clear at this point that the design of the program is to basically eviscerate asylum law as we know it,” says Jodi Goodwin, a longtime immigration lawyer in Harlingen, Texas.

Immigrant advocates say this is what the Trump administration wanted when it implemented the Remain in Mexico program.

Migrants who are forced to wait in Mexico are stressed by the time they’re allowed into the U.S. for court, says Lynn Stopher, a staff attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center. She describes seeing her client at a hearing last week in Laredo, Texas.

“She’s had nothing to eat. She’s also exhausted, physically and emotionally,” Stopher said. “And she’s expected to testify about the most traumatic experiences of her life to a video camera.”

Stopher’s client and young daughter spent the night before the hearing on the international bridge in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. They had no choice, Stopher says, as the migrant shelters in town refuse to unlock their doors until the light of day because it’s notoriously dangerous outside, and the family had to report to U.S. authorities on the bridge by 4:30 a.m.

The Migration Protection Protocols Immigration Hearing Facility in Laredo is made up of tents and portable pods along the Rio Grande. Immigrant advocates say the Remain in Mexico program is designed to eviscerate asylum protections for migrants. –Eric Gay/AP

---

From there, the mother and daughter were escorted to temporary tent courts just across the border in Laredo, where judges preside via video link from hundreds of miles away in San Antonio.

“They appear very overwhelmed,” says Ilyce Shugall, a former immigration judge and one of a small band of observers who are observing these proceedings in San Antonio.

Shugall says judges are also stressed. They’re doing their best to juggle a flurry of new Trump administration policies, court rulings and a huge volume of cases. But she says they’re making mistakes.

“The judges are just trying to get through their dockets,” Shugall says. “They just don’t have time to think. And that’s a problem.”

The Trump administration argues that Remain in Mexico is a big reason the number of migrants arriving at the southern border is down sharply over the past six months.

“The message is clear,” said Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at a news conference in Washington earlier this month.

“They will no longer be allowed to exploit our laws. And to be allowed into our country based on fraudulent claims,” Morgan said. “Those loopholes have been closed.”

Morgan says the administration is working with the Mexican government to ensure a quote “safe, secure environment” for migrants. But at the same time, Morgan said, “if somebody is abused, if somebody is exploited, there’s only one individual who’s to blame for that. And that’s the smuggling organizations, the cartels who are doing the exploitation, and abusing these people.”

Immigrant advocates say this lack of security in Mexico is the primary reason Remain in Mexico is making it harder to get asylum in the U.S. Advocates say the one individual to blame for that is President Trump, for sending migrants back to some of the most dangerous cities in the world.

“They are kidnapped. They are attacked. They are raped,” said Rebecca Gendelman, an advocate with Human Rights First. The nonprofit organization has documented more than 600 violent crimes against migrants in the Remain in Mexico program, including at least one murder.

Thousands of asylum-seekers aren’t showing up for court. Immigrant advocates say some have been kidnapped. Others are so scared they’ve gone home. Gendelman describes one hearing she observed in San Antonio, where a migrant from Honduras told the judge she had already been kidnapped once and begged him to deport her.

“She said, ‘Both my life and my son’s life are in danger,’ ” Gendelman recalled. “And then the woman said, ‘I want to go back to Honduras, because if something happens to me there, at least I have my family. But here it’s just myself and my son and God.’ ”

The second reason it’s so hard to get asylum under Remain in Mexico has to do with judges. The program funnels these asylum cases to some of the toughest judges in the country. Immigration courts near the border grant far fewer asylum claims than other courts, such as San Francisco or New York.

The third reason, advocates say, is lack of access to legal counsel. Only 4% of migrants in Remain in Mexico have found lawyers, according to the latest court data. Few lawyers are willing to travel to Mexico to take on these cases — and those who are willing say the administration has made it difficult to meet with their clients.

“They don’t want lawyers to talk to people; they don’t want lawyers to be present,” says Goodwin, who represents more than 40 migrants in the Remain in Mexico program. She describes a chaotic legal system on the border. Only lawyers are allowed into the tent courts, and they have to meet with clients in converted storage containers.

“I usually only have like maybe 15 or 20 minutes to be able to talk to my clients before court,” Goodwin says. “And in addition, they don’t allow you to see your clients after court. They really don’t want lawyers to be in that facility.”

The Justice Department, which runs the immigration courts, declined to comment for this story — except to say that a new wrinkle is coming next month. A group of immigration judges in Fort Worth, Texas, will begin hearing Remain in Mexico cases from the tent courts via video. And like the tent courts, these proceedings will be closed to outside observers.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2019/12/19/789780155/few-asylum-seekers-winning-cases-under-remain-in-mexico-program

The post Few Asylum-Seekers Winning Cases Under ‘Remain In Mexico’ Program first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Jose David Castillo, with flashlight, helps find open beds for a family looking for a place to rest at night inside a shelter for for migrants and asylum-seekers in Tijuana. (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)

People walk up a ramp at the El Chaparral pedestrian border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico. Asylum-seekers can apply to enter the U.S. at this location. (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)

Winning asylum in the United States is far from a sure thing in ordinary times, but that’s especially true for Central American migrants today due to a surge in migration, recent policy changes and overloaded border-security agencies and immigration courts.

A Syracuse University report based on 2018 asylum applications and immigration-court results shows that asylum-seekers from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were granted asylum less often than the 35% acceptance rate for migrants overall.

For Salvadorans, the acceptance rate was 23.5%; for Hondurans, it was 21.2%; and for Guatemalans, it was 18.8%.

At the same time that it’s gotten harder to win asylum, more and more migrants have been seeking protection in the United States without legal assistance.

Migrants who are represented by an attorney are far more likely to win their cases than those who are not; 90% of asylum-seekers without an attorney were denied in 2017. Roughly half of those with attorneys were denied, researchers at Syracuse found.

The migrant population itself has also dramatically changed.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a border-crisis report in April raising the alarm about “the large-scale influx of (migrant families with children),” which the agency described as a new phenomenon compared to previous immigration waves.

Apprehensions of families with children represented just 1 percent of migrants in March 2017, the report says; today they make up nearly 60% of the total.

Some of those children, it says, are used as pawns by both criminal smuggling organizations and adult migrants to increase the odds of gaining entry into the United States.

More than 53,000 migrants with children in tow were apprehended by the Border Patrol in March of this year alone. DHS says that if numbers like this hold, apprehensions of families for this fiscal year could top half a million, a 600% increase over the previous fiscal year.

This new wave of migration from Central America has worsened to the point the Border Patrol isn’t fully able to function, the DHS report says. It has “overwhelmed the entire government and brought our border security and immigration management systems to the point of collapse.”

Among other proposals, DHS says it wants Congress to allocate funds for hiring more immigration judges and for setting up three or four regional processing centers along the border to accommodate the increased influx. It’s asking for new legislation to speed up the asylum process, so that hearings and final decisions happen in 20 or 30 days, compared to the current wait times of up to two years.

Complicating matters further is the Trump administration’s shifting guidance on border security and immigration.

By law, the U.S. cannot turn away immigrants seeking asylum, though it can deny claims if they don’t meet eligibility requirements. But in January, the administration started requiring asylum-seekers at the southern border to go back and wait in Mexico until their scheduled hearings.

A federal judge in April ordered the Trump administration to halt the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy, then ran up against court challenges soon after, but the next month the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the program to continue while the legal challenge proceeds.

Then, in July, the Trump administration made the most dramatic shift yet, putting in new rules that say that migrants who pass through another country on their way to the U.S. will be ineligible for asylum. That would make it all but impossible for the thousands of migrants who pass through Mexico from Central America, Haiti, and other countries to win asylum. The rule, which is also being challenged in court, also applies to children who cross the border alone.

The post Winning asylum in the U.S. is especially hard now for Central American migrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.