On train home to LA from SD, I am thinking about all I saw & heard today as we commemorated the 1 year anniversary of the #MigrantPersecutionProtocols by demanding our govt #RestoreAsylumNOW. And I can’t stop thinking about the last case I watched, a mom w/ her 3 kids. (thread)
I wasn’t able to live tweet case b/c IJ Simpson randomly told me I wasn’t allowed to have a phone in court, which isn’t true, but I was too tired to argue. If you read thread @ImmDef today, this was the mom w/ the kids who had to leave & come back at end b/c toddler was crying.
Mom was exhausted and overwhelmed when the court heard her case at 4:30pm. She told the IJ that she was desperate. She begged him to help her, explaining that her kids have asthma and they are sick all the time and getting worse. Her loud, deep sobs made IJ Simpson uncomfortable.
She told him: “my husband beat me so severely I had to flee. My children are traumatized and they wake up in the middle of the night screaming because of the trauma. The people at the shelter don’t understand and get mad at us. I don’t have anywhere to go. I know no one in MX.”
IJ Simpson responded, “the fact that you are in a difficult position isn’t lost on me. But I didn’t start this MPP program. I don’t have authority to parole you. The law is complex, it is unclear if I can offer you bond b/c the govt did not designate you as anything on your NTA.”
She asked if that meant she would be going back today and he said yes. And she cried loudly and said “Can you give me court sooner? I am desperate. My kids grandfather is a US resident, he can help us. Please.” And IJ Simpson responded “I am not the person making you go back.”
IJ then asked the govt attorney whether or not there was some process to request review of whether this family qualified for a medical exception to leave #MPP. The govt attorney admitted he had not been paying attention and asked him to repeat the question.
Judge “if she wants her case reviewed to see if they fall into the medical exception because of her children’s asthma, who does she ask for her case to be reviewed?”
Govt atty: “I am not sure. Maybe she just tells the transport officers? Or someone at the Port?”
And that is it
Govt atty: “I am not sure. Maybe she just tells the transport officers? Or someone at the Port?”
And that is it
It’s over. She gathers her three children who are melting down and all their snacks and tissues and paperwork. She wipes her red, puffy eyes with one hand while carrying her toddler in the other. And I know that her chance at success is so low. Despite how hard she has fought.
She is subject to the #transitban so likely won’t qualify for asylum at all. Her case sounds like it is based on domestic violence, and the Attorney General has essentially decimated that as a grounds for protection. And she is in front of IJ Simpson, who denies nearly all cases.
So what I saw was a mom fighting like hell to save her own life and that of her children while up against a system designed to throw her back to the wolves. I am so fucking mad. We must #EndMPP and #RestoreAsylumNOW.
