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U.S. sends first families to Mexico to await asylum, rights groups sue


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U.S. sends first families to Mexico to await asylum, rights groups sue

By Lizbeth Diaz and Mica Rosenberg

 

2019-02-14T212809Z_1_LYNXNPEF1D1V5_RTROPTP_4_USA-IMMIGRATION-MEXICO.JPG

Police escort a bus bound to Monterrey, transporting Mexican migrants deported from the United States, as it leaves a bus station in Reynosa, Mexico January 11, 2019. Picture taken January 11, 2019. REUTERS/Tomas Bravo/File Photo

 

MEXICO CITY/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States began sending Central American families seeking asylum back to Mexico this week, a Mexican immigration source said on Thursday, while U.S. human rights groups sued the Trump administration, saying the policy puts migrants in danger.

 

Five families with a total of 16 people, including children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, arrived in the Mexican border city of Tijuana on Wednesday, according to a person who works in migration for the Mexican government who asked not to be named.

 

In late January, the United States began sending non-Mexican migrants to Mexico to wait as their asylum requests are processed in U.S. immigration courts, in a programme called Migrant Protection Protocols. But until this week, only individual adults had been sent back, not children in family groups

 

Rights groups say the programme endangers asylum seekers by forcing them to remain in regions of Mexico experiencing record levels of violence.

 

"Both the U.S. and Mexican governments know that the border area is unsafe for women and children," Michelle Brané, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice programme at the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), said in a statement of the decision to return the families to Mexico.

"The U.S. government knows full well that asylum-seeking families are no threat to this nation."

 

Sixty-three people have returned to Mexico so far under the programme, the government source said.

 

Two shelters in Tijuana said they had received the families. They asked not to be named to avoid revealing their location.

 

The American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of 11 anonymous asylum seekers on Thursday. The groups asked a U.S. judge to revoke the policy and order the government to bring the migrants back to the United States while their cases are processed.

 

The 11 asylum seekers from Central America were returned to Mexico on Jan. 30 to wait out their immigration cases, and now fear for their lives, according to the complaint.

 

The plaintiffs include a lesbian woman who said she was raped because of her sexual orientation and was forced to flee Honduras after her partner's family threatened to kill them.

 

The lawsuit alleges the policy endangers migrants and violates U.S. immigration and administrative law, as well as universal norms of international law.

 

In another sign of the political tension over immigration, the White House on Thursday said U.S. President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency to try to obtain funds for his promised wall on the Mexican border when he signs a bill to avert another government shutdown.

 

Mexico's National Migration Institute and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City, Mica Rosenberg in New York and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; writing by Julia Love; editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Bill Berkrot)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-02-15
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It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the courts.   I note that the article doesn't mention what, if any agreement has been made with Mexico.   I don't know that they are under any obligation to accept returnees who are not nationals of Mexico.   

 

I suspect that some sort of compensation is being offered to Mexico to accept them, but it remains to be seen just how long Mexico will continue to do this.   

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30 minutes ago, Credo said:

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the courts.   I note that the article doesn't mention what, if any agreement has been made with Mexico.   I don't know that they are under any obligation to accept returnees who are not nationals of Mexico.   

 

I suspect that some sort of compensation is being offered to Mexico to accept them, but it remains to be seen just how long Mexico will continue to do this.   

The OP references "Migrant Protection Protocols" as the vehicle for returnees and Mexico's agreement to support them. You could well be correct there is a mechanism (secret?) for the US to cover Mexico's costs.

 

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/01/24/migrant-protection-protocols

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18 hours ago, webfact said:

In another sign of the political tension over immigration, the White House on Thursday said U.S. President Donald Trump will declare a national emergency to try to obtain funds for his promised wall on the Mexican border 

Declare away, you’ll just fail again. 

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12 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Declare away, you’ll just fail again. 

I don't think so, it looks like a long laid out plan. If I was a democrat I'd be worried about the thousands of sealed indictments that are waiting to be opened??

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2 minutes ago, TPI said:

I don't think so, it looks like a long laid out plan. If I was a democrat I'd be worried about the thousands of sealed indictments that are waiting to be opened??

It’s going to fail. 

 

There is no emergency. 

 

Even the republicans know this. 

 

trump has lost the plot, his narcissism and ego can’t cope with fact he was whipped by Pelosi. 

 

He’s playing with a losing hand and keeps upping the stakes hoping the other players will fold. 

 

Unfortunately for him, all the other players have seen his cards and know he can’t win. 

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