President Donald Trumps remain-in-Mexico policy for asylum-seekers puts migrants in danger and violates U.S. and international law, according to an amicus brief filed by the union for asylum officers.
The union brief, filed Wednesday, told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco that asylum officers should not be forced to honor departmental directives that are fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our nation. CBS News, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Texas Tribune have coverage.
https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/union-for-asylum-officers-files-brief-opposing-remain-in-mexico-policy
Todays hearing shines critical Congressional light on the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)
Remain in Mexico Policy rolled out by the Trump administration this year. I expect my copanelists to produce significant evidence demonstrating why MPP is an unmitigated disaster for
everyone involved. My testimony focuses on how MPP is affecting and hurting my fellow
Asylum Officers, who must either carry out orders and run the program they reasonably believe
violate the law and endanger asylum seekers or leave their jobs.
...
To begin, my Union has taken and continues to take stands against policies we consider illegal.
We actively support our members who exercise their lawful rights to report abusive policies,
programs and practices to Congress and other agencies, as well as their first amendment rights.
We have filed Amicus Curiae briefs in four major court cases challenging the Trump
administrations illegal and dangerous policies regarding the US Refugee and Asylum programs:
(i) the 2017 travel ban that suspended most overseas refugee processing; (ii) the MPP policy; (iii)
the substantive changes to USCIS training and guidance materials for Asylum Officers; and (iv)
the so-called third country transit bar -- the insidious rule barring migrants arriving at the
southern border from receiving asylum if they transited through a third country and did not apply
for and were denied asylum while there.2 Because of the relevance of our MPP Amicus brief to
todays hearing, it is attached here as Exhibit 1 and is incorporated into my testimony.
https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110226/witnesses/HHRG-116-HM11-Wstate-KnowlesM-20191119-U1.pdf