Thank you @sdACLU for suing the govt to ensure access to counsel during fear of return to Mexico interviews. Now that we are allowed to participate, we see how terrifying, cursory and inadequate this system is. All the more reason to keep fighting to #RestoreAslyumNOW. (THREAD)
From @ImmDef Legal Services Director Joyce Noche: I was on the phone tonight while my client sat in a hielera at the border, pleading with an asylum officer in LA, with an interpreter who accidentally disconnected 3 times during the call.
My client described being kidnapped for 3 months in southern MX with her 5-year old son, she described being held in a house, unable to leave b/c her captors were demanding $6,000. She described how her son lived in fear in captivity, and they often threatened not to feed him.
She managed to escape after 3 months and made it to TJ with her son. There she described being followed & confronted by a man who attempted to grab her by her hands and threatened to take her child. She described being seen leaving a shelter and then being confronted by this man.
She was crying hard on the phone. I could hear her voice breaking as she re-lived the fear she felt for her son. She told the officer she feared her captors b/c they wanted money and it seemed they had found her in her shelter as they called there and asked for her by name.
The officer’s last question was whether there was anything more my client wanted to say. At that moment (I wasn’t prepared for this) she began sobbing & pleaded with the officer to not send them back to MX. She begged for her life, through gasping tears she begged for protection
She cried and pleaded. If the interview had been in person, I imagined her falling to her knees and pleading to please not send them back. She has no one in MX, nowhere to go. She is easily identifiable and her vulnerability as a young woman with a small child is apparent.
She begged to be detained in the US rather than sent back. Almost no one passes the non-refoulement interviews despite describing kidnappings, assaults, rapes, robberies, stalking & death threats.
I don’t know what the outcome will be for this client.
I am grateful that I was there to tell the officer why she should not be in MPP. But there are thousands of others who face similar deadly circumstances who do not have a lawyer fighting for them. What chance do they have in this crazy system? This illustrates why we must #EndMPP
There is no justice in a system that is designed to dehumanize. There is no justice in court hearings that railroad due process. There is no justice when our clients lives are being put at risk simply because they are seeking protection. This is why we fight to #RestoreAsylumNOW
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While SCOTUS has forfeited the power of the judiciary & submitted to Trump’s unlawfulness, we will not cede our power. This is a moment to double down on fighting for our communities and the most vulnerable among us, plant our feet on the right side of history, and forge ahead.🧵
Sotomayor dissented, “By forging ahead and granting relief to the Government anyway, this Court endorses the radical proposition that the President is harmed, irreparably, whenever he cannot do something he wants to do, even if what he wants to do is break the law."
SCOTUS majority has simply played along w/ Trump’s circumvention of the Constitution. The Court did not rule on the merits of Trump's executive action but shifted the responsibility of enforcing birthright citizenship protections onto vulnerable individuals in district court.
Earlier today the media released a list that names the people from Venezuela that were forcibly removed by the United States to an El Salvador mega-prison.
Our client, Andry, was one of them. @L_Toczylowski joined @maddow 👇
Andry is a human being. He is son, a brother, and a beloved community member. Andry is a young professional and an accomplished makeup artist. He is a gay man, who is kind, funny, and has humanitarian aspirations.
@L_Toczylowski
It doesn't justify this treatment but our client has no criminal history & entered the U.S. lawfully. Andry is so many things. One thing he is not is a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, but that didn't stop the Trump admin from disappearing him.
Asylum seekers in MPP only have from 10 to 12 to potentially meet w/ lawyers on their day in court. That is if they can find a lawyer willing to represent them while being forced to remain in Tijuana, one of the most dangerous cities in the world. #DueProcess#AccessToCounsel
On the first day of MPP court in San Diego since the Biden administration decided to resume the deadly program, there are two judges hearing 7 cases. In the days and weeks ahead these numbers will sadly increase as more and more human beings are placed into MPP.
Today we’re proud to announce the official launch of the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign. We’re working with hundreds of advocates and organizations to say it loud and clear: we’re ready for a just asylum system that puts compassion and dignity first.
➡️welcomewithdignity.org
The #WelcomewithDignity campaign is committed to transforming the way the U.S. receives and protects people who survived violence and left behind their homes. Together, w/our border orgs, we can build a more just and truly humane asylum system. Join us: bit.ly/WelcomeWithDig…
This is Bryan. After 3 yrs of separation from his mom due to Trump’s zero tolerance policy, he will finally reunite w/her this week. Despite such a traumatic experience, Bryan is fighting back by joining #TeamImmDef to help children like him know their rights.
Thank you to @jacobsoboroff for joining us in celebrating this bittersweet moment. ImmDef met Bryan while he was in an ORR shelter. Since then he was reunited with siblings. This week his family becomes whole again.
“I didn’t have a chance to say anything. We were shocked, crying and didn’t expect to be separated from each other. That was the last time I saw my mom in person.” - ImmDef client Bryan, becomes one of the first children to reunite w/mother under Biden’s Task Force this week.
Many of the children entering these EIS were forced to flee their home countries due to severe violence, persecution, natural disaster, & some may have been separated from parents or family members due to the Biden Admin's continued implementation of the unjust Title 42 policy. 2
While the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 requires that children be transferred from CBP custody into ORR facilities within 72 hours, ImmDef staff recently witnessed a child still in CBP custody after 26 days & allowed only 2 showers in that time. 3