U.S. judge halts Trump policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico

[webfact]

U.S. judge halts Trump policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico

By Tom Hals

 

FILE PHOTO: Central American migrants turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol as they seek asylum after illegally crossing the Rio Grande near Penitas, Texas, U.S., April 6, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

 

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday halted the Trump administration's policy of sending some asylum seekers back across the southern border to wait out their cases in Mexico, stopping a program the government planned to expand to stem a recent flood of migrants.

 

The ruling is slated to take effect on Friday, according to the order by U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco. The preliminary injunction will apply nationwide.

 

The program was launched in January and was one of many policies aimed at slowing rising numbers of immigrants arriving at the border, many of them families from Central America, that swelled last month to the highest level in a decade.

 

Because of limits on how long children are legally allowed to be held in detention, many of the families are released to await U.S. immigration court hearings, a process that can take years because of ballooning backlogs.

 

The Trump administration said last week it planned to expand the program of sending some migrants to wait out their U.S. court dates in Mexican border cities under a policy known as Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP.

 

The government argued MPP was needed because so many asylum seekers spend years living in the United States and never appear for their court hearings before their claim is denied and an immigration judge orders them to be deported.

 

Seeborg said that the Immigration and Nationalization Act does not authorize the government to return asylum seekers to Mexico the way the government has applied it, however. He also said the policy lacks safeguards to protect refugees from threats to their life or freedom.

 

Justice Department data show that while the percentage of immigration court cases completed "in absentia" - when the foreign citizen fails to show - has risen in recent years, the majority of immigrants show up for their hearings.

 

A U.S. Department of Justice spokesman declined to comment on Monday's ruling. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

A Mexican foreign ministry spokesman said the ministry considered the ruling "an internal decision" of the United States.

 

Seeborg said the government shall permit the 11 plaintiffs in the case to enter the United States beginning on Sunday. He said the government still retained the right to detain the asylum-seekers pending the outcome of their case.

 

The ruling can be appealed, and the government could seek a stay of the injunction until the appeals process runs its course.

 

Still, lawyers for migrants were gratified by the decision.

 

"This is a great ruling," said Judy Rabinovitz, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which was one of the groups that brought the case.

 

"This is what they were planning on implementing on a large scale. That would have been a complete game changer in the way our asylum system works," she said.

 

Rabinovitz said the groups that brought the lawsuit needed to discuss what could be done for the hundreds of refugees who are awaiting their cases in Mexico. She said as their cases are heard, they will be returned to the United States, but that could take months.

 

The plaintiffs include legal service organizations and migrants who fled Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to escape what they said was extreme violence, rape and death threats.

 

Gabriela Orellana, 26, an asylum seeker from El Salvador who was scheduled to have her first hearing on Tuesday, was delighted by news of the judge's ruling.

 

"I’m crying from happiness," she told Reuters. She is not one of the plaintiffs in the case.

 

Orellana said she fled El Salvador with her 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son after she was shot by a gang member. She has been in Tijuana since January and has waited nearly two months for her first interview with U.S. immigration authorities.

 

Others in Tijuana were more cautious.

 

"Will I be allowed to go or do I have to stay?" asked Veronica Galdames, who said she fled San Salvador in 2018 after gang members stole her food cart and, pointing a gun at her, told her she had 24 hours to get out of the city.

 

"I feel real happiness, but also uncertainty, because I don’t know if this applies to me,” Galdames said.

 

MPP was based on a decades-old law that says migrants who enter from a contiguous country can be returned there to wait out their deportation case, although the provision had never been used in the way the administration has applied it.

 

Civil rights groups sued, arguing the policy violated U.S. and international law by returning refugees to dangerous border towns where they would be unable to get legal counsel or notices of hearings.

 

Kirstjen Nielsen resigned as Secretary of Homeland Security, the department that oversees immigration, on Sunday.

 

A congressional official familiar with the matter said some in Congress believe Trump forced out Nielsen in part because she was trying to obey laws on treatment of refugees, granting of amnesty and separation of families.

 

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; additional reporting by Andrew Hay, Frank Jack Daniel and Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sonya Hepinstall)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-09

[observer90210]

Some issues are dramatic and sad regarding the plight of the immigrant movement all over the world. 

 

But at one point it is also the duty of any nation to regulate such movements for obvious reasons and have no other choice but to expel the immigrants back to their homelands.

 

One could wonder if the US Judge would have made a similar ruling if Obama or Clinton was president ?

[Puchaiyank]

The immigration circus must go on...hard to believe a country that can send men into outer space...can not use that technology to solve the immigration problem...???? 

[Tug]

This mess is a direct result of Donald’s inability to negotiate to reach a consensus to change the laws

[fxe1200]

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 

Inscription on a bronze plate inside the Statue Of Liberty.

[jesimps]

7 hours ago, Tug said:

This mess is a direct result of Donald’s inability to negotiate to reach a consensus to change the laws

I see, it isn't the the fault of liberal judges standing in the way of the president wanting to return these migrants to where they came from, it's actually Mr Trump's fault for not persuading the judges to agree with him! It's a mad mad mad mad world. 

[stevenl]

4 minutes ago, jesimps said:

I see, it isn't the the fault of liberal judges standing in the way of the president wanting to return these migrants to where they came from, it's actually Mr Trump's fault for not persuading the judges to agree with him! It's a mad mad mad mad world. 

No, it's a matter of Trump not adhering to the law.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

As the article points out, I'd like to hear someone from Homeland Security or Dept of Justice to explain how dumping asylum seekers back to Mexico, which isn't their home for most and where they have no ties or roots, is going to enable them in any way to follow and pursue their asylum cases in the U.S. Immigration courts system?

 

It would seem to be a system designed to basically push those folks out of the asylum seeking process, in which they are entitled to at least have a hearing under U.S. law.

 

In fact, in thinking about it, the Trump policy kind of resembles the Thai practice in the past (or present?) of pushing boats of asylum seekers back out to sea so they couldn't land in Thailand. Maybe that's where Trump got his idea from.....

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Chomper Higgot]

Miller’s first day on the job, can’t hide behind a woman now laddy.

[EVENKEEL]

40 minutes ago, fxe1200 said:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 

Inscription on a bronze plate inside the Statue Of Liberty.

Then why do we have borders. Are you in favor of taking down all existing barriers along out southern border?

[twocatsmac]

57 minutes ago, fxe1200 said:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 

Inscription on a bronze plate inside the Statue Of Liberty.

Send them to France then. On second thoughts we can’t because they’re full to the brim with 

the handout nomads already. 

The answer must be to make countries responsible for their own people and not try to dump the chaff in prosperous countries.

Edited April 9, 2019 by twocatsmac

[Srikcir]

48 minutes ago, jesimps said:

I see, it isn't the the fault of liberal judges standing in the way of the president wanting to return these migrants to where they came from, it's actually Mr Trump's fault for not persuading the judges to agree with him! It's a mad mad mad mad world. 

You are aware of course that immigration judges are pat of the Department of Justice that falls within the Executive Branch led by the POTUS?

Responsibility of providing adequate judges to process asylum requests is Trump's responsibility. But when his immigration policy is ZERO Latino-Mexican immigration, it doesn't seem that he's not really interested in assuring adequate processing resources.

The Trump Administration Will Pause Its Hiring Of Immigration Judges Amid A Massive Backlog Of Cases

“This administration has justified so many of their more draconian policies in terms of ‘We have got to lower the backlog’ and then all of a sudden they don’t have the funds to hire more immigration judges,” said Jeffrey Chase, a former immigration judge. “If their true goal is to provide fair adjudications more quickly, then this is inconsistent with that. More people will wait longer.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/trump-administration-immigration-judges-hiring-pause

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

A schoolmate friend of mine is currently a federal Immigration judge in San Diego...  For some curious reason, according to their office website, the number of Immigration judges in S.D. at the Calif.-Mexico border is just a small portion of the much larger number working out of the L.A. office several hundred miles to the north.  If the border was such a big deal for Trump, you'd think they would have ramped up down there...

 

[wwest5829]

10 hours ago, observer90210 said:

Some issues are dramatic and sad regarding the plight of the immigrant movement all over the world. 

 

But at one point it is also the duty of any nation to regulate such movements for obvious reasons and have no other choice but to expel the immigrants back to their homelands.

 

One could wonder if the US Judge would have made a similar ruling if Obama or Clinton was president ?

Doesn’t matter who is in office. A Judge’s reading has to be based on the law or the ruling is overturned on appeal. Judges are very aware that having their rulings overturned is a distinct rejection.

[wwest5829]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

A schoolmate friend of mine is currently a federal Immigration judge in San Diego...  For some curious reason, according to their office website, the number of Immigration judges in S.D. at the Calif.-Mexico border is just a small portion of the much larger number working out of the L.A. office several hundred miles to the north.  If the border was such a big deal for Trump, you'd think they would have ramped up down there...

 

Actually, no, as that is not the aim of The Donald and his ilk. You are speaking logically and as we agree we are dealing with someone far out his depth being directed by incompetents.

[longtom]

I see, it isn't the the fault of liberal judges standing in the way of the president wanting to return these migrants to where they came from, it's actually Mr Trump's fault for not persuading the judges to agree with him! It's a mad mad mad mad world. 

Liberal judges like judge Flores you mean?[emoji3][emoji3][emoji3]

Sent from my crappy device using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Tug]

12 hours ago, jesimps said:

I see, it isn't the the fault of liberal judges standing in the way of the president wanting to return these migrants to where they came from, it's actually Mr Trump's fault for not persuading the judges to agree with him! It's a mad mad mad mad world. 

No it isent it a judge that is upholding the law as written no more no less it is Donald trying to rule by decrees we are not a dictator ship yet let’s hope Donald doesent engineer a change to that system imo I think he is trying

[Puchaiyank]

11 hours ago, Srikcir said:

You are aware of course that immigration judges are pat of the Department of Justice that falls within the Executive Branch led by the POTUS?

Responsibility of providing adequate judges to process asylum requests is Trump's responsibility. But when his immigration policy is ZERO Latino-Mexican immigration, it doesn't seem that he's not really interested in assuring adequate processing resources.

The Trump Administration Will Pause Its Hiring Of Immigration Judges Amid A Massive Backlog Of Cases

“This administration has justified so many of their more draconian policies in terms of ‘We have got to lower the backlog’ and then all of a sudden they don’t have the funds to hire more immigration judges,” said Jeffrey Chase, a former immigration judge. “If their true goal is to provide fair adjudications more quickly, then this is inconsistent with that. More people will wait longer.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/trump-administration-immigration-judges-hiring-pause

 

Congress could put a stop to the madness in a single day...but they will not assist this President in any way...the Dems relish the chaos at the border and will not even consider legislation to put a stop to the crises...

[Tug]

54 minutes ago, Puchaiyank said:

Congress could put a stop to the madness in a single day...but they will not assist this President in any way...the Dems relish the chaos at the border and will not even consider legislation to put a stop to the crises...

Negitave last year about this time it was all set Donald even had wall money then on Easter Sunday the very day we celebrate Jesus arising from the dead Donald comes out with his DACA is dead DACA is dead I will never forget as long as I live this slime ball attacking children on Easter Sunday never no it’s donalds utter incompetence driving this fiasco 

[dick dasterdly]

6 hours ago, Tug said:

Negitave last year about this time it was all set Donald even had wall money then on Easter Sunday the very day we celebrate Jesus arising from the dead Donald comes out with his DACA is dead DACA is dead I will never forget as long as I live this slime ball attacking children on Easter Sunday never no it’s donalds utter incompetence driving this fiasco 

What on earth has the christian, easter belief to do with this?

[Jingthing]

What on earth has the christian, easter belief to do with this?

Because true Christianity represents opening your doors to poor strangers and not torturing innocent children and 45 and most of his fans represent themselves as Christians.

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