BuzzFeed News has found at least four instances where the Trump administration has forced asylum-seekers who have won their cases back into Mexico—and in at least one instance, issued an asylum-seeker a fake court date as part of an effort to prolong his wait outside of the United States.
All four had already been forced to wait there as part of the inhumane Migrant Protection Protocols policy, or Remain in Mexico. One of these asylum-seekers, Francisco, won his case after he recounted how he was interrogated, beaten, and threatened by Cuban officials with forced disappearance for his critical views of the government. “He was beaten and later handcuffed to the top of his jail cell—his hands above his head—for 24 hours,” BuzzFeed reported. “He was not allowed bathroom breaks and urinated on himself.”
But when Francisco presented his court documents at a U.S. port of entry several days after the November ruling, his attorney said he was instead given a fake court date for January and blocked from entering. “Advocates and experts said the move by the Department of Homeland Security appeared to signal a shift at the border that magnifies the true aim of the controversial MPP program,” BuzzFeed continued.
This policy might be called Migrant Protection Protocols but it’s never been about protecting anyone: It’s about keeping asylum-seekers out, more than 50,000 to date. Hundreds have been victims of violent crime, including kidnapping and sexual assault, during their waits in Mexico. Now when some are actually able to win their cases—something that’s becoming more and more rare—officials are apparently making things up out of thin air as part of an effort to continue to keep them out.
Francisco’s attorney Lisa Koop told BuzzFeed News that “The government’s behavior in this case and in other cases lays bare the true intent of MPP, which is quite simply to end asylum for all peoples in all circumstances. This is a Cuban dissident who was granted asylum and is being kept out—it removes the ambiguity of what motives are behind this program.”
Officials may also be deciding whether or not to cruelly fight Francisco’s victory. In September, the administration decided to appeal the first asylum win under Remain in Mexico, a Honduran pastor named Alex. Officials also tried to send him back to Mexico following the court ruling. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that “however, after public outcry, he was allowed to be paroled into the United States.”