A group of human rights organizations filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday challenging its policy requiring Central American migrants to return to Mexico to wait for their asylum requests to be processed.
The Migrant Protection Protocols sought to reduce the amount of families seeking asylum in the US. The American Civil Liberties Union argued that the mission of the policy goes against protections both national and international law grants to asylum seekers:
Under the new policy, immigration authorities are forcing asylum seekers at the southern border of the United States to return to Mexico to regions experiencing record levels of violence where they must remain for the duration of their asylum proceedings.By placing them in such danger, and under conditions that make if difficult if not impossible for them to prepare their cases, Defendants are depriving them of a meaningful opportunity to seek asylum. Moreover, the procedure Defendants have implemented for determining who can be returned under the policy is wholly inadequate for ensuring that those who face persecution, torture, or death in Mexico will not be erroneously returned.
The groups are seeking an injunction to block this new policy.