U.S. may offer divided families a second chance at asylum
WASHINGTON — As many as 1,000 asylum seekers whose claims were heard and rejected by the government under traumatic circumstances of family separation will get a second chance under an agreement announced late Wednesday.
While the government did not agree to return parents already removed from the country, it said it would consider “individual cases in which plaintiffs’s counsel believes the return of a particular removed” class member “may be warranted.”
The agreement, which still needs approval by the court, was a significant development in the ongoing controversy over the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy, which resulted in the separation of thousands of parents from their children at the border.
Some of the asylum seekers in question, according to a lawsuit brought on their behalf in August, were rejected by immigration authorities after interviews during which they were said to be “traumatized” by having had their children torn away from them.
The settlement between the government and plaintiffs in three lawsuits represents a major victory for the asylum seekers, children and adults alike. It gives them another chance to apply for asylum before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which will adjudicate the applications. Asylum seekers must show “credible fear of persecution or torture” if returned to their home countries.
In the meantime, they will not be removed from the U.S. But it does not guarantee that they will ultimately obtain asylum — and thus permission to remain in the United States.