The rules and the policies affecting the fates of the tens of thousands of asylum seekers at our southern border are constantly changing. At the Brownsville/Matamoros border, we spent eight days helping and witnessing in the tent camp where more than 2500 asylum seekers are being kept back from entering the US to make asylum claims. No sooner had the army of local volunteers and international relief agencies achieved a level of services that, remarkably, provides food for all who want it — feeding more than 1000 people a night, providing needed supplies and necessities at “tiendas,” free stores within the camp, providing legal guidance to many, though never enough — than the authorities switched the game. Instead of MPP, Migrant Protection Protocol or remain in Mexico, the policy is changing to PACR, Prompt Asylum Claim Review, and HARP, Humanitarian Asylum Review Process. In this administration’s constant Orwellian doublespeak, these programs mean exactly the opposite of what they are called. Instead of being denied entry and waiting months in the camp for sham courts to review and mostly deny their asylum claims, migrants’ cases are now being fast-tracked and reviewed within 10 days, not by judges, which is their legal right, but by border patrol officers who routinely dismiss them; and the people, men, women and children, are being deported immediately on airplanes. We witnessed this happening. This policy and procedure started in El Paso in October of 2019, and is now coming to Brownsville. For many of us, the early morning witnessing at the airport in the dark and freezing wind, chanting and singing to the migrants in buses waiting to shuffle in their shackles onto the plane, was one of the most emotional experiences of the trip.
The layers of legal obfuscation and pretense are complicated and hard to understand or know how to resist. But resistance is happening, legal challenges are being brought and tireless pro bono immigration lawyers are trying to help people. Below is a list of links to articles and reports that explain in depth the current changes and their effects on people’s lives; we will try to update them as the situation shifts, as it is sure to do.
Links to articles about changes in immigration policy: compiled 2/23/20
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/opinion/sunday/immigration-trump-refugees.html NY Times article from this past Sunday (2/19/20) about the author’s family history of fleeing pogroms and Nazi persecution of Jews, drawing parallels to situation now, lots of good specific information about current and projected changes from MPP to newer, worse, policies
https://www.unhcr.org/1951-refugee-convention.html (establishment of legal right to seek asylum in the 50’s)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/remain-in-mexico-deportation-asylum-guatemala/2020/02/20/9c29f53e-4eb7-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html WaPo article Feb 20 about wind down of MPP and institution of new policies, PACR (Prompt Asylum Claim Review), HARP (Humanitarian Asylum Review Process), ACA (Asylum Cooperative Agreement), all of which mean exactly the opposite of their acronym names.
https://www.borderreport.com/hot-topics/immigration/expedited-removal-policies-are-being-implemented-in-south-texas-immigration-lawyers-say/ Has video of Charlene D’Cruz, lawyer fighting for asylum seekers rights in Brownsville/Matamoros, whom we met during our stay there 2/08 to 2/16/20.
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/sites/default/files/documents/Doctors%20Without%20Borders_No%20Way%20Out%20Report.pdf long detailed report from Doctors Without Borders (MSF), this month (Feb 2020)
https://www.splcenter.org/20190625/attorney-generals-judges-how-us-immigration-courts-became-deportation-tool summary of process of denying asylum claims, report from Southern Poverty Law Center