Democratic Senators Protest Trump's Anti-Asylum Policies

[babylonsister]

Democratic Senators Protest Trump’s Anti-Asylum Policies
Lawmakers’ letter warns deportation agreements with Central American countries may violate both international and domestic refugee law.
by Marcia Brown
February 7, 2020

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On Thursday, more than 20 Democratic senators signed a letter to the administration arguing that these agreements are “inhumane and potentially illegal,” as the Prospect has already documented. Because these three countries have virtually nonexistent asylum systems, they run a high risk of failing to protect asylum seekers and “inadvertently or willfully” sending asylum seekers back to the countries they are fleeing, a process known as refoulement, the letter argues. This is a fundamental violation of refugee law.

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In their letter, the senators note that Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are largely unable to provide protection for asylum seekers and that their governments have “weak or practically non-existent asylum capacities.” Indeed, there are no dedicated asylum offices in Guatemala, and the four officials assigned to the system did not resolve one case in the first seven months of 2019. Honduras and El Salvador do not have any full-time asylum officers.

On Wednesday, El Salvador even admitted it: Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill Tinoco said that El Salvador isn’t ready to offer the protections and safety asylum seekers need, and the country will refuse to accept asylum seekers until it can. As the senators put it, the notion that these countries can offer comparable asylum systems and protections “strains credulity.” At best, their systems are “deeply flawed and under-resourced, and at worst, practically non-existent.”

The glaring lack of capacity to provide for asylum seekers led the senators to question the agreements’ legality not only under international law, but also under domestic law, specifically under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which prohibits the return of asylum seekers to their country of persecution. The senators further note that the agreements may also constitute violations of the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, to which the U.S. is party. The senator added that the agreements “may also violate U.S. obligations as a party to the 1984 Convention against Torture.”

Typical agreements require asylum seekers to have transited through the countries to which they are being deported, but Trump’s ACAs do not have transit requirements—a fact the administration obscured when they were first announced.

more...

https://prospect.org/justice/democratic-senators-protest-trumps-anti-asylum-policies/

[rockfordfile]

1. I agree

[struggle4progress]

2. knr

[2naSalit]

3. K&R

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. Keep prodding Billy Barr to see if there are any laws he still respects.