{"id":602034,"date":"2018-07-10T10:39:06","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T16:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=602034"},"modified":"2018-07-10T14:38:33","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T20:38:33","slug":"while-migrant-families-seek-shelter-from-violence-trump-administration-narrows-path-to-asylum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/while-migrant-families-seek-shelter-from-violence-trump-administration-narrows-path-to-asylum\/","title":{"rendered":"While migrant families seek shelter from violence, Trump administration narrows path to asylum"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alisson

Martin do Nascimento \/ for The Texas Tribune<\/p>

Alisson Nicole, 7, from Chalatenango, El Salvador, in the Albergue Para Migrantes Chahuites in Chahuites, Mexico on April 25, 2016. Many Salvadoran families flee gang violence in their home country to seek asylum in the United States.<\/p><\/div>\n

For nearly all of its history, the United States has welcomed the world\u2019s most vulnerable: men, women and children fleeing violence, persecution and death in their home countries.<\/p>\n

But under President Donald Trump, immigration lawyers and historians say, the legal path to safety in this country is being systematically narrowed, a process that started long before family separations drew international attention to the nation\u2019s southern border.<\/p>\n

As federal officials clamp down on asylum, citing a need to root out abuse \u2014 and as Trump himself complains of drawn-out court proceedings that grant legal rights to migrants \u2014 concerns are mounting that the administration is undermining the country\u2019s long-standing commitment to sheltering the helpless.<\/p>\n

Immigration officials have set up de facto blockades at government-sanctioned ports of entry, where asylum-seekers attempting to enter the country the \u201cright\u201d way have been delayed or turned away. Women seeking refuge from domestic abuse are reportedly being denied asylum because the U.S. attorney general decided they rarely qualify for safe harbor. A federal \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy mandates criminal prosecution even for those seeking asylum \u2014 a perfectly legal process. And some asylum-seekers have been detained for so long awaiting court hearings that they\u2019re giving up on their claims altogether.<\/p>\n

Those changes \u201call add up together to a major effort to close down the asylum system,\u201d said Denise Gilman, director of the immigration clinic at the University of Texas at Austin. \u201c… And I think the result will be that many legitimate asylum-seekers \u2014 people who are in grave danger \u2014 will in fact be returned to their home countries and risk beating, torture or death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said the administration\u2019s efforts target widespread abuse of the asylum process, citing the nearly tenfold increase in the number of U.S. asylum claims made by apprehended border crossers in the last decade \u2014 from less than 13,000 applications in the 2010 federal fiscal year to more than 119,000 last fiscal year. He\u2019s also bemoaned an increase in migrants failing to show up to their asylum hearings after being released into the country; deportation orders in such cases doubled between 2012 and 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system is being gamed,\u201d Sessions said in an October speech<\/a>. \u201cThe [asylum] process was intended to be a lifeline for persons facing serious persecution. But it has become an easy ticket to illegal entry into the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

But to immigration lawyers and advocates, the rising number of asylum claims is far from proof of abuse. Instead, it\u2019s an indication that the process is working.<\/p>\n

Among the influx of families seeking asylum are thousands of Central Americans from the violence-ridden countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. They are fathers, mothers and children who are desperate to escape the bloody gang conflict that\u2019s swallowed up their streets and the death sentences many would face<\/a> if they stayed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the numbers get too big … they start saying, \u2018Well, this isn\u2019t legitimate. These aren\u2019t real asylum-seekers,\u2019\u201d said Michelle Bran\u00e9, director of the migrant rights and justice program for the Women\u2019s Refugee Commission, a national advocacy group. \u201cAnytime you have an actual serious conflict or crisis, the numbers are going to be high. Those high numbers are exactly what that process was created to address.\u201d<\/p>\n

The asylum process was in the Trump administration\u2019s crosshairs months before millions of international eyes were trained on the family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border. Since the early days<\/a> of his presidency, immigrant rights advocates say, Trump has been working to steadily limit a well-established, legal path to refuge in the United States.<\/p>\n

Take it from his own tweets: Trump has suggested migrants do not deserve due process under U.S. laws.<\/p>\n

On June 24: \u201cWhen somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.\u201d<\/p>\n

On June 30: \u201cWhen people come into our Country illegally, we must IMMEDIATELY escort them back out without going through years of legal maneuvering.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on July 5: \u201cWhen people, with or without children, enter our Country, they must be told to leave without our Country being forced to endure a long and costly trial. Tell the people \u2018OUT,\u2019 and they must leave, just as they would if they were standing on your front lawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Credible fear’<\/h3>\n

For more than a century, the United States has offered some form of refuge to individuals facing persecution in their home countries. But the current procedure for seeking asylum wasn\u2019t codified until four decades ago, when Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980. That law ensures migrants can make their case<\/a> by demonstrating persecution or fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.<\/p>\n

The asylum process involves a maze of detention centers and courtrooms. But since Trump took office in January 2017, that process has begun to devolve.<\/p>\n