Thread by @TornilloWitness

We need political action. Join us in Brownsville Jan. 12. Witness. Jodi needs our help.

A post from Jodi Goodwin-Tales from MPP

NRIs are a joke. Talk about a time suck...non-refoulement interviews are a waste of time & do nothing but give lipservice... 1/15

...to giving asylum applicants an opportunity to explain their fears of remaining in Mexico.

Yesterday, myself & a colleague (who can choose to identify herself if she wants) spent collectively 16 hours in those stupid tents so we could be present for our clients' NRIs. 2/15

The interviews themselves took about 2 hours each. All the rest of the time was BS. I was yelled at through the phone by Asylum Officer twice. I guess they get annoyed when someone is listening to them & correcting them or in any way trying to make sure they do their job. 3/15

My client & her 4 year old daughter had been at the tent court since 8 am. You can imagine the 4 year old was restless by 3pm when we finally got the officer on the line. 4/15

My client speaks a particular indigenous Mayan language & the only interpreter the officer could find was what we call a relay interpreter because they interpret to a language other than English....which then is interpreted by someone else into English. 5/15

The officer & I both speak Spanish so the officer didn't even get a relay to English.
Interpreter had poor Spanish so not everything my client said was interpreted to Spanish. My client & I both kept correcting interpretation. Of course, the officer kept cutting us off. 6/15

When we were in court we also used an interpreter that admitted he did not speak the same language as my client but the judge went forward anyway. The trial attorney even made snide comments like "I am not sure how many dialects of Quiche Ms. Goodwin speaks...7/15

... so she [my client] obviously must speak Spanish to have an attorney/client relationship with Ms. Goodwin."

You see, this interpretation issue is just one more way indigenous language speakers are deprived of due process. 8/15

Back to the NRI-my client is tired, 4 yr old is restless, interpretation sucks, Asylum officer yelling through the phone, but yet she has to tell the officer about the rape, in Mexico, by 2 men that took her from her tent in refugee camp, into the brush near the river...9/15

...while her daughter is there listening.

The officer told her "rape? I don't know what you mean by that. Tell me exactly what they did to you." Like, for real? Asylum Officers don't know what rape is? 10/15

Apparently not this officer [who claims she is from Central America and doesn't need explanation of any of conditions there because she has 1st hand knowledge]! So I sat at the table across from my client while she held her face in her hands & sobbed through a detailed...11/15

...description of the rape. I held her little girl on my lap & let her color while mom was having a full-on breakdown. She was raped because she is a "pinche indigena que no vale nada" according to her attackers. There was no explanation for the denial. 12/15

She was sent back to Mexico to live in the tent camp where she is haunted each day. The Asylum Officer with my colleague was much nicer, but denied her client's NRI, too. He provided insight though. Asylum Officers are instructed they must deny all cases unless...13/15

...there is evidentiary proof of harm in Mexico based on a protected ground. They are also told that Nationality is not a protected ground despite all treaties, laws, statutes, regulations and case law. They have "orders from above" & must follow them or lose their job. 14/15

With those kind of illegal orders, no one ever has a chance at passing an NRI. The interviews are meaningless. Truly the Trump/Stephen Miller machine should not even bother with these show-interviews.

NRIs are a joke. 15/15 #WitnessTornilloTargetMPP #Jan2029 #IfNotNowWhen?