Border agents have illegally turned away asylum seekers, new report claims
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According to a new report from Human Rights First, agents from Customs and Border Protection—an agency riddled with so much corruption that DHS last year said it constituted “a national security threat”—have been “turning away foreign nationals whBorder agents have illegally turned away asylum seekers, new report claims
According to a new report from Human Rights First, agents from Customs and Border Protection—an agency riddled with so much corruption that DHS last year said it constituted “a national security threat”—have been “turning away foreign nationals who arrive at the Mexican border seeking asylum from persecution in their homelands.” Not only is this morally reprehensible, it’s illegal. Under the law, CBP agents are to take any individuals seeking asylum “into custody, and eventually direct them to an asylum officer who assesses the validity of their claim.” But according to some of the cases described in the Human Rights First report, agents have reportedly told asylum seekers that “Trump says we don’t have to let you in,” and “the United States is not giving asylum anymore”: The May report by Human Rights First does not cite a specific number of rejections, but it said that its researchers had their survey on 125 cases of individuals and families denied access at border ports of entry. Some of them are Cubans and Central Americans who likely were headed to Miami to join relatives. CBP officials denied that their border officers are rejecting asylum seekers, but did not specifically deny the cases cited in the Human Rights First report or the prior AIC complaint. They include stories from people group investigators interviewed at ports of entry in Texas, Arizona and California. Asylum seekers interviewed came from Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Turkey. In many instances, the asylum seekers interviewed said border officials told them that because of the change in administrations, the United States was no longer granting asylum like before, according to the May report. “Lawyers reported to Human Rights First that CBP agents at the Hidalgo port told asylum seekers, ‘Trump says we don’t have to let you in,’ and ‘you can’t just show up here’,” the report says. “In February 2017 CBP agents at the Ped-West entry point told an asylum seeker that ‘the United States is not giving asylum anymore’.” According to the report, “documented cases of asylum seekers improperly turned away include: an artist from Colombia fleeing political persecution at the hands of violent paramilitaries, a Turkish opposition political party member, a former Guatemalan police officer who resisted gangs, a Salvadoran child of Christian pastors who witnessed the gang murder of his sister, a Mexican fleeing police kidnapping after reporting cartel violence, Cubans requesting asylum, and transgender women from El Salvador, among others.” According to the Miami Herald, “none of these assertions—if true—are backed up by any new regulations, policies or laws under President Donald Trump, who was sworn in on Jan. 20.” Read more