吃瓜大本营

Last September, Bianca* was forced to flee Honduras because her partner鈥檚 father threatened to kill her for being a lesbian. Bianca could not go to the police in Honduras because they LGBTQ people from harm. So she left home to save her life.

After traveling through Guatemala and Mexico, Bianca reached Tijuana, where she got in line to enter the United States through the border station and ask for asylum. After weeks of waiting, Bianca鈥檚 number finally came up on Jan. 29. Before last month, after entering the country, Bianca would have been interviewed by an asylum officer to determine if she had a potential asylum claim, and once she passed that, her case would have proceeded in immigration court.

She would only be deported from the United States if she did not succeed in her asylum application 鈥� that is, if she could not show that her fear of persecution was well-founded.

However, because of a new Trump administration policy, border officers sent Bianca back to Mexico without even evaluating her request for asylum. They said her immigration court process would go forward in the United States while she was in Mexico, and Bianca would have to return to the border port a few hours before each court date so that she could be brought to court and then dumped back in Mexico to await her next hearing. Unless and until she actually won her asylum case, she鈥檇 be marooned in Mexico.

It is extremely difficult for asylum seekers to find a lawyer and pursue their U.S. asylum cases while in Mexico. And many are subject to a severe risk of .

The administration calls this new policy the 鈥� 鈥� but that鈥檚 just Orwellian doublespeak. Indeed, the policy has nothing to do with protecting people and everything to do with making it impossible for migrants to get the humanitarian protection that they are entitled to under domestic and international law.

Today the ACLU and its partners filed a lawsuit to block this new policy, which violates our immigration laws; the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies do business; and the United States鈥� duty under international human rights law not to return people to dangerous conditions.

The administration鈥檚 purported basis for the policy is a provision of the immigration laws that allows certain migrants to wait in Mexico or Canada while their immigration case is heard in immigration court. But that law was never meant to apply to asylum seekers like Bianca.

The policy also violates the APA, which prohibits agencies from acting in a way that鈥檚 鈥渁rbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law.鈥� The policy violates the APA because, like so many of the administration鈥檚 immigration policies, it鈥檚 based on lies.

For example, the administration there鈥檚 an immigration crisis at the border. But border apprehensions are . Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, has further that the policy will deter people who seek to 鈥済ame the system鈥� and make fake asylum claims so they can 鈥渄isappear into the United States.鈥�

But the policy doesn鈥檛 even attempt to identify people with fraudulent asylum claims or who will flee the authorities. Indeed, the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees and others have that the overwhelming majority of people fleeing from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras have real claims to asylum and other protection in the U.S. And the government鈥檚 own shows that the overwhelming majority of asylum seekers, like Bianca, will show up for court proceedings on their asylum claims.

Finally, the policy violates the United States鈥� longstanding duty of 鈥渘onrefoulement鈥濃�� our obligation not to return people to places where they will face persecution, torture, or other cruel and inhumane treatment.

Although the administration has tried to give the impression that it won鈥檛 return asylum seekers who face danger in Mexico, its actual policy doesn鈥檛 back that up. The procedure that is supposed to address humanitarian concerns is a sham. Asylum seekers will be subjected to an unprecedentedly strict screening 鈥� without a lawyer, the guarantee of an interpreter, or the opportunity to appeal to a judge 鈥� and will only get that screening if they affirmatively assert a fear of return. And even people who can prove they鈥檇 be harmed or killed if forced back to Mexico won鈥檛 necessarily be exempted from the policy if the threat they face isn鈥檛 based on a protected ground, like race or religion, and it doesn鈥檛 meet the legal definition of torture.

The result is that asylum seekers like Bianca will be returned to Mexico despite their real need for humanitarian protection. To make matters even worse, extensive reports by and have documented Mexico鈥檚 practice of detaining and deporting asylum seekers to countries where they face serious threats to their lives and freedom.

This policy is the administration鈥檚 latest attack on our asylum system. Instead of facing facts and living up to its legal obligations, the administration is again manufacturing a 鈥渃risis鈥� at the border and ignoring our laws for its own political ends. But lies and fear-mongering are not a lawful basis for agency action 鈥� especially when lives are at stake.

*Bianca鈥檚 name has been changed to protect her identity.