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Thread. What is missing from the dialogue about the "Remain in Mexico" program, officially known as the ridiculous, Orwellian, "Migrant Protection Protocols," is ways it becomes nearly-impossible to give appropriate legal advice to asylum-seekers who are *terrified* because /1
they are at an imminent risk of danger & violence. I have been working with asylum-seekers for a decade, & am well-versed at coping with traumatized individuals telling me the horrific, intimate details of the reasons why they fled their home countries to seek asylum: /2
death threats; beatings; torture; murdered children; gang rapes. I am used to this. I am accustomed to helping my clients cope with the anxiety of, "what if I lose my case," & helping them to draft "safety plans" if they are eventually deported to their home countries. /3
But I'm not prepared to support asylum-seekers filled with terror about being dumped in Juarez. I don't know how to help them draft safety plans when kidnappers surveil the return location to pluck them off the streets just minutes after arrival, & others surveil the shelters. /4
I don't know how to effectively talk to them about legal strategy when the bulk of their brain-functioning is preoccupied w/, "is my family going to be kidnapped & killed tomorrow?" Or when they ask me, “who will take care of my child when I am murdered? I have no one here.” /5
I don't know how to properly advise their sobbing loved-ones when they *are* kidnapped & they are trying to decide whether to scrape together the ransom or to report the crime to widely-corrupted Mexican officials. Or when lawyers nationwide ask me for the same advice. /6
I don't know how to stay strong & stoic in the face of so much tragedy & fear. I, myself, am terrified every time I step foot in Juarez. I’ve seen the kidnappers & scouts surveilling the bridges; I’ve even spoken to some inadvertently, 1 time provoking a thinly-veiled threat. /7
I, myself, have been unable to stop from shedding silent tears in court while the affable judge tells sobbing mothers & fathers that there is nothing he can do to keep their families safe in the U.S. I, myself, have realized that my brain functioning is clouded by the trauma. /8
And I am not even the one in the hot seat; I have the privilege of walking away, of going home safe & hugging my daughter & asking her about her day, knowing that she, too, is safe. How is anyone supposed to win their case under these circumstances? How is this due process? /9
