MATAMOROS, Mexico — Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro on Monday escorted 12 asylum-seekers to the US border who had been forced to wait in squalid conditions in Mexico under the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" policy while their immigration cases proceed in the US. Hours later they were sent back to Mexico.

The group escorted by Castro included LGBTQ immigrants who said they had been threatened and assaulted while waiting in the Mexican border town for their US court dates, as well as a deaf woman and her relatives. The group was seeking an exemption from Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), the Trump administration's policy forcing asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico.



"Hours after we were told LGBT and disabled asylum seekers would have their cases heard, they have been returned to Mexico," Castro said in a tweet. "By law, these migrants are supposed to be exempt from the Remain in Mexico policy—but [Customs and Border Protection] had decided to ignore their due process. Outrageous."

The US government's decision not to allow the group to enter highlights the difficult circumstances asylum-seekers face while their cases are heard in US immigration courts. A Reuters analysis in June found that only about 1% of people in MPP had their cases removed from the program. The policy, which has sent more than 48,000 asylum-seekers back to Mexico, has been rolled out away from US eyes and lauded as a success by the administration.

The Department of Homeland Security has said vulnerable populations may be excluded from the policy on a case-by-case basis, including immigrants who are "more likely than not to be persecuted" in Mexico. Immigrants with known physical and mental health issues should also not be subjected to MPP, according to guiding principles for the program.

The Texas Civil Rights Project called the decision a brutal blow to due process and said there is no intention to protect asylum-seekers under the Trump administration's policy.

Daniela, a 22-year-old lesbian from Cuba, who was among the LGBT group escorted by Castro said she was disappointed and demoralized after being sent back to Matamoros.

"Now more than ever I'm convinced MPP is not about protecting us," Daniela told BuzzFeed News. "It's about wearing you down so you don't fight your asylum case in court."

All of the immigrants who spoke to BuzzFeed News for this story declined to use their full names due to concerns for their safety.



"If these people — LGBTQ migrants who have been assaulted for who they are in the camps, disabled people, children — do not meet the criteria for 'vulnerable populations,' then the 'vulnerable' exemptions in 'Remain in Mexico' are lip service," the organization said in a statement. "Everyone on the ground here knows it, and now we can prove it."

CBP did not immediately return a request for comment on why the group was sent back to Mexico.

During his visit Monday, Castro walked through a growing encampment of about 1,000 asylum-seekers living on the streets of Matamoros, and called the Trump administration policy a "disaster" that he would immediately end as president.

"It flies in the face of the tradition in the United States of allowing people seeking asylum to make that claim and to remain in the safety of the United States instead of having to be in places like Matamoros," Castro said. "A lot of families along the border who are part of this MPP program have been subjected to violence, some have been kidnapped, some have been extorted, some have been treated a lot worse than what they were fleeing from."

A State Department advisory for the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which includes cities like Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo, warns American citizens about threats to safety when traveling to the area, noting that murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault are common.