US court hearings for asylum seekers
A group of asylum seekers sent back to Mexico was set to cross the border on Tuesday for their first hearings in US immigration court in an early test of a controversial new policy from the Trump administration.
The US programme, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), turns people seeking protection in the United States around to wait out their US court proceedings in Mexican border towns. Some 240 people — including families — have been returned since late January, according to US officials.
Court officials in San Diego referred questions about the number of hearings being held on Tuesday to the US Department of Homeland Security, which did not respond to a request for comment. But atorneys representing a handful of clients were preparing to appear in court.
Migrants like 19-year-old Ariel, who said he let Honduras because of gang death threats against himself and his family, were preparing to line up at the San Ysidro port of entry first thing Tuesday morning.
Ariel, who asked to use only his middle name because of fears of reprisals in his home country, was among the first group of asylumseeking migrants sent back to Mexico on Jan. 30 and given a notice to appear in US court in San Diego.
“God willing everything will move ahead and I will be able to prove that if I am sent back to Honduras, I’ll be killed,” Ariel said.
While awaiting his US hearing, Ariel said he was unable to get a legal work permit in Mexico but found a job as a restaurant busboy in Tijuana, which does not pay him enough to move out of a shelter. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other advocacy groups are suing in federal court to halt the MPP programme, which is part of a series of measures the administration of President Donald Trump has taken to try to curb the flow of mostly Central American migrants trying to enter the United States. The Trump administration says most asylum claims, especially for Central Americans, are ultimately rejected, but because of crushing immigration court backlogs people are often released pending resolution of their cases and live in the United States for years. The government has said the new programme is aimed at ending “the exploitation of our generous immigration laws.”