A Customs and Border Patrol agent scrambling to process the influx of immigrant youth at the US southern border last year reportedly identified a three-year-old child as having crossed "to look for work." Wow, impressive. The alleged mistake was cited by the American Immigrant Lawyers Association (AILA) in an
amicus brief arguing the error is symptomatic of the Obama administration's rush to process asylum claims. Esther Yu-Hsi Lee
reports:
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were tasked with giving credible fear interviews to migrants and producing accurate records of proceedings as quickly as possible. At the same time, Obama administration officials sought additional resources to expedite deportations for the “vast majority” of migrants who didn’t qualify for asylum or some other form of protection. The emphasis on speedy deportation removals resulted in at least three planes of deportees and many more migrants locked up in detention centers.
That’s why AILA counsels contend that immigration agents compromised the credible fear and reasonable fear process as they were caught up in the fast pace of removals during border screenings. The brief cites the “border screening process, the coercive nature of the detention center, and the systemic defects in the implementation of the credible and reasonable fear interviews” as issues.
In particular, the brief cited the case of a CBP border agent who reportedly signed off on written testimony that he had interrogated Y.F., a migrant border crosser who left his home country to “look for work.” Another agent counter-signed the testimony, attesting to having witnessed the entire interrogation. But there was one problem. At the time of his interrogation, Y.F. was three years old.
Somehow it is unsurprising to find that government agents may have fudged some of these asylum interviews in their dash to return unaccompanied minors to the very countries they fled. But that doesn't make it any less shameful or inhumane.