From the Center for the Victims of Torture (http://www.cvt.org/):
The Trump administration just released new guidance that furthers the barriers they have already put up against individuals and families who are seeking asylum. This new guidance will result in deporting and turning away thousands who are fleeing to the United States in hopes of seeking safe haven.
The Trump administration’s new guidance is simply cruel and inhumane; it compounds the trauma already affecting those fleeing life-threatening persecution and violence. In response to the moral and humanitarian crisis at our southern border, this latest attempt by the administration to deny families and others seeking protection is reprehensible.
Individuals and families have the legal right—as established in U.S. laws and our obligations under the Refugee Convention and its Protocol—to seek protection from violence and persecution. This new guidance will result in legitimate asylum claims being dismissed out of hand, in violation of that right.
Consistent with the President’s despicable “zero tolerance” policy, the guidance permits (and surely will be read to encourage) denying asylum based on the fact that individuals or families entered the U.S. without authorization at the southern border. It also effectively requires asylum seekers to prove their cases immediately upon entering the country.
This guidance isn’t just callous and unlawful, it defies common sense: many families trying to enter the U.S. at the southern border are traumatized, don’t speak English, and cannot possibly be expected to be prepared to present a complex legal case for asylum to an officer at the border. Moreover, fleeing one’s home is an act of courage and of desperation. Families have to make decisions they believe will bring them to safety, including entering the country in a location outside an established port of entry.
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