Migrants may get 2nd shot at asylum

Federal judge back deal for separated families

Lawyers for the parents had argued that they were not able to properly present their cases because they were separated from their children at the time of their interviews, a traumatic experience that made it difficult to explain the situation in their home countries.

A federal judge appears ready to sign off on an agreement to allow a second chance at applying for asylum to more than 1,000 undocumented immigrant families who were separated under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy.

At a hearing in San Diego, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said Friday that the agreement between the administration and lawyers representing immigrant families was “an excellent proposal” and asked the two sides to write up a draft order for his approval.

The agreement – brokered between the Department of Justice and lawyers representing migrant families – will halt deportation proceedings to give another opportunity to parents who failed the first stage of the asylum application process, during which they had to demonstrate they have a “credible fear” of returning to their home country.

Lawyers for the parents had argued that they were not able to properly present their cases because they were separated from their children at the time of their interviews, a traumatic experience that made it difficult to explain the situation in their home countries.

Under the agreement, federal immigration officials will be required to consider the “psychological state of the parent at the time of the initial interview.”

The proposed deal also provides a small window for the roughly 400 parents who have already been deported to return to the U.S. to make new asylum claims. But those cases will be “rare and unusual” and will require case-by-case reviews by the federal judge overseeing the case.

“The government does not intend to, nor does it agree to, return any removed parent to the United States or to facilitate any return of such removed parents,” the agreement says.

Earlier this summer, Sabraw ordered the administration to reunite all separated families and continues overseeing the reunification process.