US begins sending asylum seekers in Arizona back to Mexico🤬😔
In expansion of Remain in Mexico program, authorities are moving some migrants to Nogales, Mexico, 350 miles from court hearings
In expansion of Remain in Mexico program, authorities are moving some migrants to Nogales, Mexico, 350 miles from court hearings
The US government has started sending asylum seekers back to Nogales, Mexico, to await court hearings that will be scheduled roughly 350 miles (563 kilometers) away in Ciudad Juárez.
Authorities are expanding a program known as Remain in Mexico that requires tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait out their immigration court hearings in Mexico.😢
Now, asylum seekers😢 will have to find their own way through dangerous Mexican border roads.
About 30 asylum seekers were sent to Nogales, Mexico, on Thursday, said Gilda Loureiro, the director of the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora.
About 30 asylum seekers were sent to Nogales, Mexico, on Thursday, said Gilda Loureiro, the director of the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora.
Critics say the program, one of several Trump administration policies that have all but ended asylum in the US, puts migrants who fled their home countries back into dangerous Mexican border towns where they are often kidnapped, robbed or extorted.
A Human Rights First report released in December documented at least 636 public reports of violence against asylum-seekers returned to Mexico including rape, kidnapping and torture.
Human Rights First said that was a steep increase over October, when the group had identified 343 attacks, and noted the latest figure is surely an under-count because most crime victims don’t report.
Nogales is now the eighth border crossing – and first in Arizona – through which US authorities return migrants to Mexico to await court hearings. The policy was introduced in January 2018 in San Diego.
US authorities claim the program has helped to significantly reduce illegal border crossings. The border patrol apprehended just over 33,000 people along the south-west border in November, compared to 144,000 in May, when border crossings peaked.
