The U.S. deported them, ignoring their pleas. Then they were killed.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

The U.S. deported them, ignoring their pleas. Then they were killed.

By Alison Parker
2/10/2020, 2:23:23 p.m.
Alison Parker is the managing director of the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch.

Asylum seekers in the United States face dangerous, even deadly, consequences when their claims are not taken seriously.

Those at risk are people like Santos Amaya, a Salvadoran police officer who had received death threats from gang members. He was deported from the United States in April 2018 and was shot dead, allegedly by gangs, that same month. People like a young Salvadoran woman who fled domestic violence and rape and was deported to El Salvador in July 2018. She now lives in fear, hiding from her abusers.

These lives hang in the balance while the Trump administration attacks every legal means of protecting them in the United States.

On Feb. 5, Human Rights Watch released a report that identified 138 cases of Salvadorans who had been killed since 2013 after being deported from the United States; more than 70 others were beaten, sexually assaulted, extorted or tortured. These numbers are shocking but certainly an undercount, because no government or entity tracks what happens to deportees.

The Trump administration has put pressure on immigration judges to use overly narrow readings of the definition of a refugee. This approach may result in judges denying asylum to people like Amaya and the young Salvadoran woman — survivors of domestic violence, people who fear violence at the hands of gangs, or people who fear being targeted based on their family relationships. The administration has further proposed several new obstacles to gain asylum, including barring people convicted of illegal reentry into the United States, an offense often committed by people desperate to seek safety.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/10/us-deported-them-ignoring-their-pleas-then-they-were-killed/

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Related: Deported to Danger (Human Rights Watch)

[Judi Lynn]

1. "These numbers are shocking but certainly an undercount", most certainly.

Look at the way this administration treats people who are legal citizens right here in this country.

This government doesn't have a leg to stand on when it accuses other countries of any crime against people. The crimes against humanity which have already happened since 1916 right here appear unlikely to change unless a human being can somehow, against all odds, make it to the White House.

What a shame these poor people had to struggle and suffer so much to make it accross the border, only to be treated like trash, abused here, and sent right back to be murdered at home. Look at the trouble they could have been saved simply by allowing themselves to be slaughtered right away, at home.