Western Mass Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice

Here is Josh Rubin explaining the latest developments:

Our observations have suggested a couple of things. First, we have heard from more than one source that the rate of people being placed into MPP—that is, the policy that strands people in Mexican border cities while a long, drawn out sham legal process takes place—has slowed significantly. We heard this from attorneys who keep track of new MPP cases in Matamoros. And we have watched as the total number of MPP cases reported by the US government has stayed the same for three months now, 60,000 being that number.
And second, just as we became aware of deportation flights from a number of airports, and began our observation of them at the Brownsville airport, we have heard more and more about the deployment of the most direct strategy yet for preventing people from getting relief in our country, under plans that largely bypass even the appearance of respecting international norms of decency. These are known as PACR (Prompt Asylum Claim Review) and HARP (Humanitarian Asylum Review Process), and they operate with the help of agreements with so-described safe third countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, under ACA (Asylum Cooperative Agreements).
Simply put, asylum seekers have their claims quickly denied, in places where they have no chance of getting legal help, in holding facilities like the tent CBP (Customs and Border Protection) facilities in places like Donna, Texas. Then they are shackled and bused to the airport, like the one in Brownsville, Texas, and loaded onto planes in those same shackles, subject to search, and they are let out in one of those “safe” third countries, given a choice, we hear, of applying for asylum (no asylum has yet been granted) or returning to their home countries, from which they recently fled. We have reports that these unwilling passengers have not been advised of any rights they might have, and some arrived confused about where they are, hungry and severely stressed. 
For our government, this has the advantage of being even further out of sight than the border cities of Mexico that are still hosting largely unsupported populations of refugees from the violence and poverty of the places they fled. Still too visible for the disappearing act being contrived with the help of Mexico, the cartels that work hand in hand with the Border Patrol, and the third countries that, cowed and corrupt, lend their beards to the latest face of the atrocity.
Our government celebrates the lower numbers of the desperate, which they attribute to the reduced likelihood of people finding hope for themselves and their families in the country that has disowned the lamp lifted in New York Harbor, just visible to me this rainy morning as I rest at home.
I will return to Brownsville in a couple of weeks. We will keep our eyes and ears open. We will witness. (posted on Facebook Feb 25, 2020)

And here at this link is a report from the ACLU about the denial of access to lawyers for asylum seekers:
https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/ban-on-attorney-access-for-asylum-proceedings-in-inhumane-cbp-jails-key-to-trumps-attack-on-asylum

Please let us know if you would like help planning a trip to the border, by commenting here, emailing us at jewishimmigrationjustice@gmail.com, or messaging us on our Facebook page (Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice of Western MA)

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

Having just returned from our week immersed at the southern border of Brownsville/Matamoros, I am struck by the many ways that I witnessed “light in the dark”.
In the face of enormous fear, danger, and harsh, cumulative injustice, the migrants of Matamoros, whose hearts seem buoyed by indomitable faith, carry on with beautiful resilience. We witnessed the ingenuity, creativity, enterprise, cooperation, gratitude and capacity to build a village out of dirt and hope. Likewise the capacity of those on the American side of the little green Rio Grande, who care deeply about the injustice happening in our names and with our taxes, have responded to this evil policy with a plethora of humanitarian efforts that roll out each and every day, requiring incredible organization, hard work, lots of money and volunteers. Together they bring meals, schooling, books, life affirming activities, warm clothes, needed supplies, medical care and legal advocacy, always responding to the changing conditions on the ground. They do this with a bottom up approach, not a top down approach, that is, they listen to the voices of the migrants and offer help that is requested, and support the empowerment of migrants to organize themselves and participate directly in all the many efforts to make the unbearable a little bearable.
I came back with a stronger feeling of how evil this policy is, how Kafka-esque and Nazi-esque it all seems, out of site of most Americans, by design.
But I also directly witnessed the vitality, that particular kind of human inextinguishable light in the face of darkness, the kind I heard stories about from my relatives who survived the holocaust, and from so many peoples’ struggles for justice past and present. I didn’t leave Brownsville/Matamoros feeling very hopeful about justice winning over injustice for our asylum seeking brothers and sisters, as the system is almost totally rigged against them. But seeing and feeling their light, strengthens my conviction that we can not stop trying.

I am in Brownsville Tx at the Mexican border where daily there are hearings for asylum seekers to make their claim to remain in this country out of fear for their safety. The “courts” are in tents with judges seen and heard on giant monitors. It is all very democratic-seeming with rules that are insane…straight out of Alice in Wonderland and George Orwell’s 1984. The judge tells them: “This is an adversarial process. You need a lawyer to help you make a claim, but Homeland Securities’ lawyers will argue your coming here to make this claim is criminal.” The appearance of due process is seen to be maintained, but the essence of due process–the cornerstone of democracy– has been eliminated. I heard this judge with my own ears and my blood froze.