Deterrence-Only Policy to Blame Yesterday, ProPublica released a deeply disturbing video documenting that the death of 16-year old Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vazquez while in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody last May was a preventable tragedy. The horrifying details reveal that CBP lied about what happened and covered...
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Today, Human Rights First (HRF) issued a report entitled, “Human Rights Fiasco: The Trump Administration’s Dangerous Asylum Returns Continue,” that compiles “overwhelming evidence that this illegal policy is a human rights catastrophe.” Yet, almost a year into this problematic program, the Trump administration...
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As NBC News previously reported, leading white nationalist advisor Stephen Miller has long pushed for restricting access to a fair asylum hearing and pressuring judges and other government personnel to deny more asylum-seekers’ claims. The same NBC piece also quoted from a National Security Council official and Miller ally...
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“America is at its best when it welcomes refugees and asylum seekers” Over the holiday, the Boston Globe published a powerful editorial highlighting the stark contrast between Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA)’s annual luncheon —which brought together 350 immigrants, refugees and allies to share a Thanksgiving meal...
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Wolf at the Door: Acting DHS Chief Claims “Success” When Result is Failure At the El Paso border last week, Trump’s acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf called the administration’s border and asylum policies successful and asserted they have made “progress in solving the humanitarian crisis.” He claims it is...
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A new, deeply-researched article by Rachel Morris in HuffPost’s longform Highline makes the troubling case that despite President Trump’s failure to construct the actual promised border wall, anti-immigrant obsessives and restrictionists within the Trump administration have nonetheless managed to build an “invisible wall” to keep out immigrants: In the...
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On Thursday, the bicameral Refugee Protection Act (RPA) was introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). At a time when America’s commitment to being a safe-haven for refugees and asylum-seekers is in serious doubt, this legislation provides a map to how we reestablish and improve...
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Yesterday, Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed reported on internal Trump administration documents underscoring the sheer cruelty and chaos inherent to the Trump administration’s plan to send asylum seekers from El Salvador and Honduras to Guatemala. The piece, “The Trump Administration Will Deport People Seeking Asylum In The US To Guatemala...
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Growing Pushback Against Trump’s Policies to Block Asylum The Trump administration’s asylum and border policies, including Remain in Mexico or MPP and the so-called “safe third country” agreements with El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, are cruel and chaotic. The growing consequences of the human rights crisis Trump and Stephen...
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Civil Servants Deserve High Praise for Standing up for American Values “It only took Doug Stephens two days to decide: He wasn’t going to implement President Trump’s latest policy to restrict immigration, known as Remain in Mexico. The asylum officer wouldn’t interview any more asylum seekers only to send...
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