A federal appeals court is allowing the Trump administration’s inhumane policy of forcibly returning asylum-seekers to Mexico to wait out their cases to go forward for now. “A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit cited different reasons for permitting the ‘remain in Mexico’ initiative to move forward after a lower court blocked it last month,” Politico reports. “The appeals court allowed the policy to continue only on a temporary basis, while the court considers broader issues in the case.”
The administration has already sent back nearly 3,300 asylum-seekers under the “remain In Mexico” policy since January, with instructions for them to return later for their court dates. But advocates told The New York Times that some have received court dates for October and later and have had trouble finding a shelter to stay at, and it’s unclear if asylum-seekers are even being informed if their court dates change.
The judges are allowing the policy to stay for now despite asylum-seekers’ fear of being forced out of the U.S. because of “the Mexican government’s commitment to honor its international-law obligations and to grant humanitarian status and work permits to individuals returned,” the court ruling said, but advocates say otherwise, calling it “devastating.”
Immigration lawyer Taylor Levy “said that families are being dropped off on the streets of Ciudad Juárez, across the border, where they cannot find space in shelters that are at capacity. Many, she said, are being targeted by robbers and kidnappers. ‘We have had multiple families kidnapped for extortion,’ she said.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, is pledging to keep fighting. “Asylum seekers are being put at serious risk of harm every day that the forced return policy continues,” said Immigrants’ Rights Project director Omar Jadwat. “Notably, two of the three judges that heard this request found that there are serious legal problems with what the government is doing, so there is good reason to believe that ultimately this policy will be put to a halt.”