NOGALES, ARIZONA – For the first time, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is sending asylum seekers back to Mexico through Nogales, Arizona to wait for their cases to move through the system.

Hearings on asylum cases are currently being held in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. That’s across the border from El Paso, Texas, some 350-miles away.

In the past, CBP often provided migrants with transportation from Arizona to Texas. Under new protocols, asylum seekers will have to make their way on their own.

CBP says it changed the procedure because it believed migrants were crossing the border into Arizona to avoid being sent back to Mexico.

More than 56,000 people have been sent back across the border since January of 2019. Most passed through ports in and around San Diego, Calexico, El Paso, Laredo, Brownsville and Eagle Pass.

CBP sent about 30 asylum seekers back to Mexico through Nogales Thursday morning.

Critics say the program puts migrants who fled their home countries back into dangerous Mexican border towns where they are often kidnapped, robbed or extorted.

But, wait. Democrats claim that there is no crime at the border, so, not sure which way to view that aspect.

According to an article written for the Wall Street Journal, a Human Rights First report released in December documented at least 636 public reports of violence against asylum seekers returned to Mexico including rape, kidnapping and torture.

Human Rights First said that was a steep increase over October, when the group had identified 343 attacks, and noted the latest figure is surely an under-count because most crime victims don’t report.

Nogales is now the eighth border crossing – and first in Arizona – through which US authorities return migrants to Mexico to await court hearings. The policy was introduced in January 2018 in San Diego.

More than 56,000 people were sent back to Mexico by the end of November, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Of the more than 24,000 cases that have been decided, only 117, or less than 1%, have been granted asylum or some other form relief allowing them to stay in the United States.

US authorities claim the program has helped to significantly reduce illegal border crossings. The border patrol apprehended just over 33,000 people along the south-west border in November, compared to 144,000 in May, when border crossings peaked.

“I am confident in the program’s continued success in adjudicating meritorious cases quickly and preventing fraudulent claims,” Wolf wrote.

A three-judge appeals court panel heard arguments October 1st in San Francisco on a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union to block the policy. The court has yet to rule.

In December, we shared with you that the US was sending asylum seekers to Central America.

In an attempt to address the numbers of migrants attempting to enter the country on asylum claims, U.S. officials have started to send families seeking asylum to Guatemala, even if they are not from the Central American country.

“The United States and the Government of Guatemala are working closely together to continue implementation of the Asylum Cooperative Agreement,” Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said.

The statement was released this week.

“We are building protections that will be available to the region’s vulnerable populations closer to home — eliminating the need to make the dangerous journey north and lining the pockets of transnational criminal organizations.”

And it’s not just those from Guatemala, he said.

“As we fully implement the agreement, all populations are being considered, including Mexican nationals.”

In July, the Trump administration announced a new rule effectively ending asylum at the southern U.S. border and requiring asylum-seekers to claim protection elsewhere.

Under the rule — which currently faces legal challenges — virtually any migrant who passes through another country before reaching the U.S. border and does not seek asylum there will be deemed ineligible for protection in the United States.

Guatemala’s highest court initially said the country’s president couldn’t unilaterally enter into an agreement with the United States to take the asylum-seekers, but since late November, U.S. officials have forcibly returned individuals to Guatemala.

U.S. officials said they would return only single adults at first but have started applying the policy to non-Guatemalan parents and children.

A family of three from Honduras who were served with notice Tuesday that they’d soon be deported to Guatemala would be the first to be sent to that country under the new policy.

LET has a private home for those who support emergency responders and veterans called LET Unity. We reinvest the proceeds into sharing untold stories of those patriotic Americans. Click to check it out.

The Trump administration has reached similar agreements with Guatemala’s Northern Triangle neighbors, El Salvador and Honduras, in each case obligating those countries to take people who reach the U.S. border after crossing their territory. Those agreements, however, have yet to be implemented.

The administration describes the agreements as an “effort to share the distribution of hundreds of thousands of asylum claims.”

The deals — also referred to as “safe third country” agreements — “are formed between the United States and foreign countries where migrants removed to those countries would have access to a full and fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum or equivalent temporary protection,” according to the federal notice.

Guatemala has had no real asylum system of its own, but the Trump administration and Guatemalan government both said the returns would roll out slowly and selectively.

The expansion of the policy to families could mean many more asylum-seekers being moved to Guatemala.

Experts, advocates, the United Nations and Guatemalan officials say the country doesn’t have the capacity to handle any sizable influx, much less process potential protection claims. Guatemala’s own struggles with corruption, violence and poverty helped push more than 270,000 Guatemalans to the U.S. border in fiscal 2019.

The MPP actually created a decreased number of asylum claims.

Thousands of migrants returned to Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy have given up their asylum claims, with many of them returning home.

That’s according to statistics included in a new assessment of the policy released this week by the Department of Homeland Security.

The policy, known formally as the Migrant Protection Protocols, sends migrants seeking asylum at the southern border back to Mexico for the duration of immigration proceedings. It is a cornerstone of the administration’s efforts to end “catch and release,” by which migrants are released into the U.S. while their cases are heard.

So far, the administration has returned more than 55,000 migrants to Mexico.

The assessment describes the policy as an “indispensable tool in addressing the ongoing crisis at the southern border and restoring integrity to the immigration system.” It says that it has completed almost 13,000 cases as of Oct. 21.

A significant portion of the 55,000 asylum claims appear to have been unbased and invalid and have resulted in these migrants abandoning their claims – this is directly in support of and in harmony with the Trump administration’s desire to do away with “catch and release” as previously mentioned.

In previous asylum cases, migrants were released as full family units or as individuals into the United States with only a promise to return for their court hearing. Statistics have shown that 98% of those migrants never show for their hearings, choosing to remain in the United States illegally and live in the shadows.

“We’re now sending the message that, if you’re coming here as an economic migrant, you’re not going to be allowed into the United States,” Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan, who has called MPP a “game-changer,” told reporters this month. “That’s driving a lot of people to return.”

Critics, like Congressional Democrats, have argued against the policy and its results.

“Not only does this policy do nothing to protect either migrants or U.S. interests, but we have grave concerns about its legality, recent efforts to expand it, and the dangerous conditions it forces asylum seekers to endure while waiting for their cases to be heard,” said a letter from two dozen Senate Democrats.

It was sent in August to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan.

Administration officials representing US Customs and Border Patrol have indicated that with additional facilities, judges, and administrative aides available, these asylum hearings have been accelerated to be held within a couple of months, compared to the three or four years previously experienced.

It appears that the aggressive stance of the administration coupled with expedited hearings has dropped, in drastic numbers, the droves of people attempting to enter the country.

The results clearly prove what US CBP officials have said all along – the large majority of asylum cases weren’t valid, and with this new system in place, the people attempting to use asylum as a fraudulent means to migrate to the U.S. are being returned to their home countries.

—

Want to make sure you never miss a story from Law Enforcement Today? With so much “stuff” happening in the world on social media, it’s easy for things to get lost.

Make sure you click “following” and then click “see first” so you don’t miss a thing! (See image below.) Thanks for being a part of the LET family!