Trump suspends asylum system, leaving immigrants to face an uncertain future

By TIM SULLIVAN They arrive at the U S territory line from around the world Eritrea Guatemala Pakistan Afghanistan Ghana Uzbekistan and so multiple other countries Related Articles Israel intensifies attacks in Gaza and strikes ports in Yemen as Trump wraps up trip to region Watching Trump from afar Israel fears being left out of a new Middle East it helped create Conservatives block Trump s big tax breaks bill in a stunning setback Supreme Court could block Trump s birthright citizenship order but limit nationwide injunctions Colorado would lose billions in Medicaid funding under House Republicans plan They come for asylum insisting they face persecution for their religion or sexuality or for supporting the wrong politicians For generations they had been given the chance to make their event to U S agents Not anymore They didn t give us an ICE officer to talk to They didn t give us an interview No one inquired me what happened revealed a Russian electoral process worker who sought asylum in the U S after he mentioned he was caught with video recordings he made of vote rigging On Feb he was deported to Costa Rica with his wife and young son On Jan just after being sworn in for a second term President Donald Trump suspended the asylum system as part of his wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigration issuing a series of executive orders designed to stop what he called the invasion of the United States What asylum-seekers now find according to lawyers activists and immigrants is a murky ever-changing situation with sparse obvious rules where people can be deported to countries they know nothing about after fleeting conversations with immigration personnel while others languish in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Attorneys who work frequently with asylum-seekers at the confines say their phones have gone quiet since Trump took office They suspect countless who cross are straightaway expelled without a chance at asylum or are detained to wait for screening under the U N s convention against torture which is harder to qualify for than asylum I don t think it s altogether clear to anyone what happens when people show up and ask for asylum commented Bella Mosselmans director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council Restrictions face challenges in court A thicket of lawsuits appeals and countersuits have filled the courts as the Trump administration faces off against activists who argue the sweeping restrictions illegally put people fleeing persecution in harm s way In a key legal battle a federal judge is expected to rule on whether courts can review the administration s use of invasion states to justify suspending asylum There is no date set for that ruling The establishment says its declaration of an invasion is not subject to judicial oversight at one point calling it an unreviewable political question But rights groups fighting the asylum proclamation led by the American Civil Liberties Union called it as unlawful as it is unprecedented in the complaint filed in a Washington D C federal court Illegal territory line crossings which soared in the first years of President Joe Biden s administration reaching nearly arrests per day in late dropped significantly during his last year in office and plunged further after Trump returned to the White House Yet more than people are still arrested daily for illegally overcoming the southern U S dividing line Specific of those people are seeking asylum though it s unclear if anyone knows how countless Immigrants walk through Tapachula Chiapas state Mexico in an attempt to reach the U S frontier Monday Jan the inauguration day of U S President Donald Trump AP Photo Edgar H Clemente A migrant reception center that normally received hundreds of people every day after they crossed the Darien Gap on their journey north to the United States stands empty in Lajas Blancas Panama April AP Photo Matias Delacroix Colombian movers look out from a Panamanian immigration bus transporting them from a migrant reception center in Lajas Blancas where they arrived after moving across the Darien Gap en highway to the U S southern territory line to a police station in Panama City March AP Photo Matias Delacroix Show Caption of Expatriates walk through Tapachula Chiapas state Mexico in an attempt to reach the U S boundary Monday Jan the inauguration day of U S President Donald Trump AP Photo Edgar H Clemente Expand Paulina Reyes-Perrariz managing attorney for the San Diego office of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center noted her office sometimes received to calls a day about asylum after Biden implemented asylum restrictions in That number has dropped to almost nothing with only a handful of total calls since Jan Plus she added lawyers are unsure how to handle asylum cases It s really tough to consult and advise with individuals when we don t know what the process is she declared Doing everything right None of this was expected by the Russian man who demanded not to be identified for fear of persecution if he returns to Russia We felt betrayed the -year-old explained The Associated Press We did everything right The family had scrupulously followed the rules They traveled to Mexico in May discovered a cheap place to rent near the demarcation with California and waited nearly nine months for the chance to schedule an asylum interview On Jan they got word that their interview would be on Feb On Jan the interview was canceled Moments after Trump took office U S Customs and Dividing line Protection communicated it had scrubbed the system used to schedule asylum interviews and canceled tens of thousands of existing appointments There was no way to appeal The Russian family went to a San Diego margin moving across to ask for asylum where they were taken into custody he reported A meager weeks later they were among the immigrants who were handcuffed shackled and flown to Costa Rica Only the children were left unchained Turning to other countries to hold deportees The Trump administration has tried to accelerate deportations by turning countries like Costa Rica and Panama into bridges temporarily detaining deportees while they await return to their countries of origin or third countries Earlier this year particular transients were deported from the U S to Costa Rica and roughly were sent to Panama To supporters of tighter immigration controls the asylum system has constantly been rife with exaggerated maintains by people not facing real dangers In modern years roughly one-third to half of asylum applications were approved by judges Even several politicians who see themselves as pro-immigration say the system faces too much abuse People around the world have learned they can claim asylum and remain in the U S indefinitely to pursue their declares retired U S Rep Barney Frank a longtime Democratic stalwart in Congress wrote last year in the Wall Street Journal defending Biden s tightening of asylum policies amid a flood of illegal immigration An uncertain future Numerous of the immigrants they arrived with have left the Costa Rican facility where they were first detained but the Russian family has stayed The man cannot imagine going back to Russia and has nowhere else to go He and his wife spend their days teaching Russian and a little English to their son He organizes volleyball games to keep people busy He is not angry at the U S He understands the administration wanting to crack down on illegal immigration But he adds he is in real danger He followed the rules and can t understand why he didn t get a chance to plead his episode He fights despair almost constantly knowing that what he did in Russia brought his family to this place I failed them he declared I think that every day I failed them