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.”
“Since the beginning of this administration, we have continued to see a really alarming rate of complaints and concerns being raised ... across the border," one researcher said. "For us, this is a threshold issue: If we can't guarantee meaningful access to protection ... then the very point of those systems are undermined."
Under U.S. immigration law, asylum seekers who have been placed into expedited removal proceedings by CBP cannot be summarily deported before having an asylum officer conduct a screening. When CBP invokes expedited removal and the individual indicates an intent to apply for asylum or a fear of persecution, the CBP officer must, under U.S. law, refer that asylum seeker for a “credible fear” interview with an asylum officer. From December 2016 through March 2017, about 8,000 asylum seekers were referred for protection screening interviews from U.S. ports of entry, including U.S. airports. Asylum seekers are held in U.S. detention facilities during these screenings, and even those who pass this screening often remain in immigration detention facilities for months.
CBP’s own field manual instructs officers to refer an individual to an asylum officer for a credible fear interview upon indication “in any fashion or at any time during the inspections process, that h eor she has a fear of persecution, or that he or she suffered or may suffer torture.” Alternatively, CBP officers may place asylum seekers into regular immigration court proceedings before an immigration judge under section 240 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, rather than invoking expedited removal.
Because there is official protocol CBP agents are to follow whenever they encounter asylum seekers at the border, the main question here is if agents are willingly ignoring the law, or are ignorant of the law. Either of these is unacceptable, and incredibly disturbing considering the Trump administration is seeking to ramp up his deportation force by relaxing hiring standards in order to recruit more agents. According to one former official, CBP’s corruption rate already “exceed[s] that of any other U.S. federal law-enforcement agency.” Now, the federal government could soon be taking in a flood of wholly unqualified newbies, even as current agents are illegally turning asylum seekers away. So much for being that “law and order” candidate.
