Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #MigrantPersecutionProtocols
Most recents (24)
Wierd thing happens when I watch border/asylum stories on tv. Like every Sunday, I’m watching @LastWeekTonight but this week its focus is asylum & I keep having to pause it to catch my breath. I have seen all this in real life but somehow watching it on tv rocks me every time.
This happened to me with the scene in @OITNB where Blanca was leaving prison and was put on an ICE bus. I was sitting in my living room inconsolable watching her boyfriend stand there with flowers waiting for her, knowing she wouldn’t come.
In the show Vida there was a scene where a guy got picked up by ICE & I wasn’t expecting it and I cried so hard I almost threw up. But in real life I would’ve been the lawyer there, all business, explaining what to do and not crying. Cause no one wants their lawyer to be crying.
#MPP thread. 3:55am & I’m at the Paso del Norte Port of Entry in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, at the time asylum-seekers are supposed to show up at the bridge for their court dates. It’s still pitch black outside of course, & still no word from @DOJ_EOIR if #MPP courts going forward 
4:40am. Seems like asylum-seekers have been processed as usual for their #MPP hearings. We have been trying to give advice to people before they cross about the possibility of judges calling in sick, etc. It’s been awful to watch their faces fall with the news. #ParoleThemAll
ImmDef Director @L_Toczylowski is back in the #MigrantPersecutionProtocols court in SD today. Despite the 9th Circuit finding the #MPP program illegal & dangerous, in the first courtroom we visit today there are 5 families appearing before IJ Simpson today. No one has an atty.
There are 5 families in this courtroom, all of them with little kids in tow. One little girl is playing w/ a teddy bear on the court bench. IJ Simpson is asking the families if they have have any questions. A women stands asks if her case can be joined w/ her children’s cases.
Stunning response: “well in a moment I am going to find that your charging document is defective and therefore you won’t have a case anymore to join with your kids’ cases. Any other questions?” He immediately moves into a group oral decision terminating there cases. #NoJustice
On train home to LA from SD, I am thinking about all I saw & heard today as we commemorated the 1 year anniversary of the #MigrantPersecutionProtocols by demanding our govt #RestoreAsylumNOW. And I can’t stop thinking about the last case I watched, a mom w/ her 3 kids. (thread)
I wasn’t able to live tweet case b/c IJ Simpson randomly told me I wasn’t allowed to have a phone in court, which isn’t true, but I was too tired to argue. If you read thread @ImmDef today, this was the mom w/ the kids who had to leave & come back at end b/c toddler was crying.
Mom was exhausted and overwhelmed when the court heard her case at 4:30pm. She told the IJ that she was desperate. She begged him to help her, explaining that her kids have asthma and they are sick all the time and getting worse. Her loud, deep sobs made IJ Simpson uncomfortable.
Back in #MigrantPersecutionProtocols court for the afternoon in San Diego, now switching to Judge Clemente’s courtroom. ImmDef Director @L_Toczylowski will be breaking down what is happening for everyone who can’t come witness this mockery of justice in person. #RestoreAslyumNOW
This courtroom is packed. There are a few lawyers here, including @CargioliM (ImmDef’s managing atty in San Diego), who is representing a family that includes 3 little girls, all with glittery bows in their hair and the two youngest girls (age 2 and 3) are wearing pink tutus.
With the help of @JFSSD, @ImmDef teamed up w/ @ThinkLawLab to do a quick KYR presentation for the many unrepresented families here. Like all of the triage lawyering we do for #MPP, this is woefully inadequate given that they are about to appear b4 a judge and lives are at stake.
If you read one thing today, it should be this haunting article. Let it sink in that our government photographed the injuries this father suffered being tortured in front of his 3 year old child, and then sent them both right back into danger in Mexico. nytimes.com/2019/12/21/us/…
Jose's terrifying story is onestory but there are 1000s of desperate asylum seekers living in fear for their lives today after they sought protection at our border. Please #stayoutraged. Fight compassion fatigue. Let Jose’s story really sink in & imagine if this was your family.
Read Jose’s story, share it, talk about it with your friends and family as you gather for the holidays this week. Do not let our government do this in the shadows, shine a light. #SaveAsylum #migrantpersecutionprotocols. #EndMPP #KeepFamiliesTogether
nytimes.com/2019/12/21/us/…
nytimes.com/2019/12/21/us/…
UPDATE: Atty just got off the phone with mom who was crying happy tears! Thank you to all, especially @JoaquinCastrotx & the @HispanicCaucus, for applying public pressure to @CBP to release these children. After a terrifying night facing the unthinkable, they have been released.
The fight for justice for this family is far from over, but the kids were given an order of supervision allowing them to go with their parents at least for now. Remember, this outcome is likely only because this family is one of the less than 2% of #MPP cases with an atty.
The absurd & terrifying situation yesterday is one we will continue to see b/c of the #asylumban & other recent changes. But many families will face this alone. We must keep fighting with everything we have to shut this whole damn #migrantpersecutionprotocols down. #SaveAsylum
BREAKING: An 8 y/o boy & his twin 4 y/o sisters are facing potential separation from their mother at the #migrantpersecutionprotocols tent court in Laredo. ImmDef is in touch w/ their atty, Jorge Trevino from @TrevinoLawFirm, who represented them via video from San Antonio today.
Immigration Judge Tijerino granted their asylum-seeking mother “withholding of removal” finding that there is a 50% or higher chance she will be persecuted because of her political opinions if sent back to Venezuela. HE THEN DENIED THE CHILDREN’S APPLICATIONS.
This means that these children, 5 days before Xmas, face being sent back to Mexico alone while appeal is decided. Their dad, a US legal permanent resident, is currently racing from San Antonio to Laredo fearful that his small children could be sent back to Mexico by themselves.
Out of 156 human beings at #migrantpersecutionprotocols court today in San Diego, only 4 (all from the same family) are represented by an attorney. This means 152 people entered the US this morning to face immigration court alone #thisisnotjustice #dueprocessdenied (thread 1/?)
Sitting in court waiting for IJ O’Connor to come out and a baby is screaming. The “detention officers” from the private security company who are tasked with detaining #mpp families while they go to court are handing out diapers.
Only #mpp cases being heard in San Diego today & a few detained merits by video conference. Each judge has 40+ people on their afternoon docket. Babies & toddlers are crying as we wait for the judge to come in. One mom is breastfeeding her toddler to get him to stop crying.
She is one out of 50k. Since Jan 2019, more than 50k asylum-seekers have been forced into the streets of dangerous border cities as part of the #migrantpersecutionprotocols. She is just one of the 50k desperate for help as they face a system completely stacked against them.
Yesterday she and her mom attended our clinic in Mexicali where we filled out their asylum applications so they have something to file when they return to court. ImmDef's Cross-Border Initiative is a lifeline giving families like hers a fighting chance at safety and protection.
Under the #migrantpersecutionprotocols, border courts are overwhelmed. Since Jan, cities like San Diego have seen new cases jump from ~200 to more than 2,000 a month. Judges lacking judicial independence are under pressure to violate due process in order to keep their jobs.
As the #AsylumBan decision was issued, handing death sentences to 1000s of ppl seeking safety, I was crossing into the US from Mexicali after 3 days providing legal triage to victims of Trump’s #MigrantPersecutionProtocols. I then drove 4 hours back to LA, blissfully unaware. 1/
News of this cruel decision from #SCOTUS is sinking in within the context of what I saw and heard over the last three days. Seems like a good time to share a bit of what is happening in Mexicali, where 6000+ ppl have been forced back after seeking asylum. Here is my context. 2/
It’s brutally hot in Mexicali. When I arrived it was about 105 & ppl kept telling me it was 120 two weeks ago. Multiple ppl I met mentioned there kids had suffered illnesses related to the heat. And that’s another thing, there are so many kids. So many toddlers and babies. 3/
Tfw you read @DHSMcAleenan's letter to Congress, which is full of blatant lies, misleading/incorrect data, Orwellian euphemisms, proposed human rights violations and really annoying, weirdly constructed sentences meant to camouflage obviously illegal and disturbing policies:
@DHSMcAleenan Just a couple of the things (sorry, I know I'm late to this). He claims that if lawmakers let him detain families indefinitely, it will help deprive traffickers of money/resources. There is literally no excuse for abusing children or adults. Find another way to solve the problem.
@DHSMcAleenan Now, your definition of "the problem" might be different, but no matter what, I think it's pretty safe to say that if McAleenan and the Trump administration cared a tiny bit about protecting children, they wouldn't be forcing thousands of them to wait mnths/yrs in Mexico in #MPP.
Today was hard. We went to a shelter full of families. Nearly 100% of the people we spoke with had been kidnapped already, most by Mexican officials. How can ppl look at these kids and their parents trembling, crying, begging for help, for safety, for life...and deny them that?
I saw pictures of kidnapped children sobbing in a corner. I met a woman who was raped in Mexico and was so traumatized she couldn’t write her name on a pad of paper. She trembled so much it was just scribbles. #migrantpersecutionprotocols #mpp
Don’t look away. Don’t move on to your next post. Don’t keep scrolling past the horrors you read about or see here. These are PEOPLE. We are torturing them and we are encouraging the Mexican government to torture them. They just want to LIVE.
It’s not hard to understand why access to counsel is a problem for MPP cases. Not only are attorneys forced to go to some of the most dangerous parts of Mexico along the border to meet with clients; it is also difficult to represent them at the court.
My client is scheduled for a 12PM hearing today. She won’t arrive until 11:30AM at the earliest by transport. By the time people are here, have lunch, and get organized into courtrooms, it will be after 1PM before hearings begin.
One thing that Americans almost uniformly believe is that people should have a fair chance in court. But the “Remain in Mexico” or MPP #MigrantPersecutionProtocols program is designed to eliminate fairness. This program is against our collective value of fairness. 1/
The government has forced 10,000s of people who seek asylum to wait in Mexico where there are almost no lawyers. There is literally only one non-profit @AlOtroLado_Org attending to everyone. Volunteers come in weekly to do what they can, but the cases are complex 2/
Most people in #MigrantPersecutionProtocols cannot find a lawyer to help them. Reports are that almost 99% of people are appearing pro se (without a lawyer). Remember, these are asylum cases so the stakes are high. It’s literally life or death. 3/
Thread: Unsurprisingly, I remain disgusted at the illegal #MigrantPersecutionProtocols. My clients are so unbelievably traumatized at the hands of the US government they can barely speak for 5 minutes without breaking down completely.
One of my clients fled death threats from gangs in El Sal after the police told the gang she filed a report. When she arrived, she was abused by CBP. She’s so terrified of CBP that though she could likely get out of MPP, she can’t imagine even a few days detention by the US govt
Another client entered in July. He was never told why he was sent back to Mexico. He opposed the Venezuelan government and fled after being threatened and assaulted. He is being forced to wait FIVE MONTHS in Mexico before his first hearing in the US.
Yesterday I watched an immigration judge spend 3 hrs scolding families living on the streets of Tijuana for not providing the court with an address where they can receive mail. They were homeless or had no address because forced to remain in Mexico in #MigrantPersecutionProtocols
The immigration judge also repeatedly scolded the babies and toddlers in deportation proceedings for making noise. Parents in #MigrantPersecutionProtocols can’t leave their children in Mexico to come to court in USA, so the rooms are full of kids trying to sit quietly for hours.
Each family expressed the incredible barrier that being forced to remain in Mexico in #MigrantPersecutionProtocols creates to finding a lawyer and told the judge that the nonprofits are at capacity & some don’t call back.
Judge: “I find that hard to believe. They have intake.”
Judge: “I find that hard to believe. They have intake.”
I spent the day doing court observation at hearings for asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico under the #MigrantPersecutionProtocols in El Paso. One Central American man there with his 11-year-old daughter had a lot to say to the judge. The school year is supposed to begin. 1/
His little daughter had already lost a year of school because the family had to run for their lives - first his wife and son, followed by him and their daughter. Wife and son have already been let into the US, he said. But he and his daughter were placed into MPP, sent to 3/
Ciudad Juárez, a very dangerous Mexican border city. It’s so dangerous, he said, that even if he had work authorization there, he can’t leave his kid alone. @hrw and others have documented migrants being targeted for kidnapping, extortion, sexual assault, robbery, etc., 3/
In Juarez, Lilia* & Yasmin* from Cuba, found the Trump Admin turning away asylum seekers at the U.S. port of entry. They put their names on the CBP "metering" list. Weeks into their wait men targeting migrants kidnapped & repeatedly raped Lilia & Yasmin. humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/…
After their families paid a ransom, Lilia & Yasmin lived in fear for weeks before their turn to request asylum. “We thought that when we entered the United States, we’d finally be safe,” Yasmin said. Instead, DHS returned them to Mexico under the #MigrantPersecutionProtocols
CBP officers ignored their fear of being sent back to Mexico. A CBP officer told Yasmin that whatever had happened there “did not matter.” She recalled that CBP officers “said we had no rights.” One said to her, “‘It’s better to give Cubans $20 and send them back to Cuba.’”
What @SpeakerPelosi and @SenSchumer have shown them is that it does not matter how many kids die, how many refugees are crammed into tiny, airless cells and cages without showers for weeks on end, how many families are ripped apart, Ds will keep writing the checks. No strings.
Once you know that, if you’re them, that’s basically all you need to know to start #ExpeditedRemoval and #AsylumBan2.0 and #MigrantPersecutionProtocols in full force.
In 2 months, there’ll be an adp of 60k, complete with severely overcrowded camps and prisons, and more suffering. They’ll come back again for more money. Instead of fixing the issues they’ll keep expanding. There is no evidence they won’t get the $ from Congress.
Today in #MigrantPersecutionProtocols Court, San Diego edition: DHS atty is opposing a change of venue from SD to LA, despite assertions on the record that they are likely paroling client in today to reunite her w/ her mom. Judge overrules govt, orders COV. Govt reserves appeal.
Out of all the cases on the immigration judge’s docket, there is only one person represented (our client). Everyone else is proceeding “Pro Se” or on their own, including a non-English speaking mom and her 5 y/o who is currently struggling to understand how to do pleadings.
The little boy is playing with the headset and getting restless, and the Judge is telling him “please listen to your mom and be a good boy. Your mom needs to listen carefully.” Now the little boy won’t sit at the table so the judge is giving him paper to draw on. Mom is crying.
Now testifying at the hearing on “Kids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border” is @humanrights1st President Michael Breen oversight.house.gov/legislation/he…
Breen met with asylum seekers held in abusive @CBP detention condition and then sent to Mexico as part of the Trump administration's #MigrantPersecutionProtocols. One woman he spoke to said after 3 days, her 5-year-old was too weak to stand.
She told him she begged an agent with @CBP to help her. The agent reportedly responded, "Well, is he dead yet?" and asked her why she was crying if not. #DontLookAway #CloseTheCamps
A thorough and accurate opening statement by @RepRaskin at the hearing on “Kids in Cages: Inhumane Treatment at the Border.” #CloseTheCamps #DontLookAway #MigrantPersecutionProtocols oversight.house.gov/legislation/he…
Yazmin Juárez, the mother of the 18-month-old toddler who was killed after being detained in @ICEgov custody at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, is now testifying. She said she watched her "baby girl die, slowly and painfully." #DontLookAway
She said back in Guatemala, her daughter was happy and healthy, but they had to flee and came to the US to seek asylum. They were held in @CBP custody in a "hielera" or ice box, known for the cold temperatures, and made to sleep on the concrete floor.
@DHSgov said the family separation policy is over, but a new @hrw report details cases where children were held in facilities in the US while adult family members were sent to Mexico as part of the #MigrantPersecutionProtocols. hrw.org/node/331719
So far, more than 4,780 children have been placed in this program, returning them, along with pregnant women, LGBT people, differently abled people, and people with an illness who may need medical attention, to dangerous Mexican border cities w/o any form of support.
Meanwhile, shelters in Mexico are totally overwhelmed, and asylum seekers have no legal right to work. Because Border Patrol agents take their documents and other possessions in many cases, asylum seekers may have trouble receiving money from abroad or traveling elsewhere.
