Border agents have illegally turned away asylum seekers, new report claims

[Judi Lynn]

By Gabe Ortiz
Wednesday May 24, 2017 · 3:04 PM CDT

According to a new report from Human Rights First, agents from Customs and Border Protection—an agency riddled with so much corruption that DHS last year said it constituted “a national security threat”—have been “turning away foreign nationals who arrive at the Mexican border seeking asylum from persecution in their homelands.” Not only is this morally reprehensible, it’s illegal. Under the law, CBP agents are to take any individuals seeking asylum “into custody, and eventually direct them to an asylum officer who assesses the validity of their claim.” But according to some of the cases described in the Human Rights First report, agents have reportedly told asylum seekers that “Trump says we don’t have to let you in,” and “the United States is not giving asylum anymore”:

The May report by Human Rights First does not cite a specific number of rejections, but it said that its researchers had their survey on 125 cases of individuals and families denied access at border ports of entry. Some of them are Cubans and Central Americans who likely were headed to Miami to join relatives.

CBP officials denied that their border officers are rejecting asylum seekers, but did not specifically deny the cases cited in the Human Rights First report or the prior AIC complaint.

They include stories from people group investigators interviewed at ports of entry in Texas, Arizona and California. Asylum seekers interviewed came from Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Turkey.

More:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/5/24/1665651/-Border-agents-have-illegally-turned-away-asylum-seekers-new-report-claims?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29