Thread by @ReichlinMelnick

This is an invaluable leak. These training materials give us an inside view of the ways that the US will implement its “Safe third country” deal with Guatemala—who DHS will apply it to and how.

They also reveal a sham process, designed to generate denials at any cost.

Thread:

https://twitter.com/tedhesson/status/1197284043525705729

Here is the most important slide: a list of who will be sent to Guatemala (at least for now).

Worth noting that none of these “amenable populations” and “exceptions” are actually listed in the US/Guatemala deal—though there are likely secret agreements between the countries.

Just as those lists of “amenable populations” and “exceptions” seem to have been manufactured at DHS’s discretion, the training materials also reveal that the decision to start the process to send someone to Guatemala is entirely in the hands of CBP officers at the border.

Once CBP officers decide that someone can be sent to Guatemala, they give that person a “tear sheet.”

This single piece of paper will be the only time asylum seekers are told they can express a fear of persecution in Guatemala.

They will never be told verbally.

After someone gets the “tear sheet,” they will likely remain in CBP detention in an hielera, waiting for an interview with an Asylum Officer.

Unlike in the credible fear process, asylum seekers will NOT be permitted to consult with anyone else—meaning no lawyers allowed!

The purpose of this interview is basically for the Asylum Officer to sign off on CBP’s decision.

If, and only if, the asylum seeker “affirmatively” expresses a fear of going to Guatemala, will the Asylum Officer screen the person for their fear in Guatemala.

Also notable on this slide: spouses and “qualifying children” are processed together.

The government defines families very narrowly—legal marriage, biological parent/child or formal adoption. That’s basically it.

This is going to lead to a LOT of families being broken up.

One other thing the Asylum Officer can do is recommend that DHS exercise its discretion to allow the person to seek asylum in the US if it’s in the “national interest.”

As this slide shows, that is going to be extremely rare because it requires huge amounts of sign-off.

Now, imagine the asylum seeker read the tear sheet and “affirmatively” expresses a fear of being sent back to Guatemala.

Here’s the deliberately high bar they will face; prove—and no lawyers allowed, remember?—that it’s “more likely than not” they’ll be persecuted in Guatemala.

The interview starts. The asylum seeker tries to explain why they’re afraid.

See, on their way through Guatemala, they were already the victims of persecution! That would be enough, right?

Nope. The Asylum Officer “May NOT make a positive assessment solely on past persecution.”

To be clear, under the terms of these training materials, even if a Honduran or Salvadoran has previously been the victim of *torture* in Guatemala, that alone is not enough to stop DHS from sending them back to Guatemala and forcing them to apply for asylum there.

Finally, the interview is over!

If the asylum seeker—with no lawyer allowed and locked in CBP custody—somehow manages against all odds to pass, they just get put in the credible fear process.

If they fail, the screws tighten; abandon your asylum claim or be sent to Guatemala.

Having laid out the convoluted process below, let’s go back to the big picture.

This is a sham. It’s going through the motions with only a single result realistically possible.

Almost no one will be able to avoid being sent to Guatemala or forced to abandon their asylum claim.

These training materials confirm what I wrote today.

If these so-called “Asylum Cooperative Agreements” go fully into effect, the Trump administration will have accomplished “the near-total destruction of the decades-old U.S. asylum system.”

immigrationimpact.com/2019/11/20/tru…