Border Report Live: Trump's efforts to limit asylum, birth rights face legal challenges

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) -- The Trump administration is challenging longstanding tenets on the right to flee oppression abroad and find a safe haven in the United States, as well as the right of all persons born in the U.S. to call themselves an American. 

This week on Border Report Live, correspondents Julian Resendiz, Salvador Rivera and Sandra Sanchez examine how millions of people showed up at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years seeking entry based on American asylum law. This law, based on international treaty obligations, guarantees the right of foreign nationals to petition admission based on persecution and fear of torture because of political opinion, religious affiliation, race or gender. 

The numbers overwhelmed border processing centers and U.S. immigration courts. They also made President Joe Biden the target of widespread political attacks. 

That’s when advocacy organizations said the U.S. government began to limit these rights and use legally questionable means to skirt asylum law. Biden last June determined you could only claim asylum at ports of entry if you had an appointment. Trump came into office in January, declared a national emergency and suspended most asylum avenues.  

Related reporting:

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• Mexico says migrant deaths have doubled since Trump took office
• Tijuana shelters see funding, US donations dry up
• Nation’s undocumented population would swell if birthright citizenship ended, study finds
• Mexico opposes proposed US tax on remittances
• 87 charged with illegal entry into new Texas military buffer zone

Migrant shelters that were habitually near capacity emptied in a matter of weeks. The whereabouts of the many families waiting for an asylum appointment concern those who welcomed them to these temporary havens. 

This week, a coalition of advocacy groups on the U.S. and in Mexico published a report shedding light on what happened to tens of thousands who got stuck at the border and were denied entry by these changing asylum policies. 

Their findings are worrisome.  

Those who chose to stay in Mexico are continuously exposed to criminals who see in migrants an opportunity for quick cash through extortion or kidnapping. Those who chose to return to their country were again exposed to the abuse they endured coming to the U.S. border. And those who did not want to jeopardize their safety or that of their family members turned themselves to U.S. authorities and were either placed in detention centers to await their deportation or given the option of a swift return to Mexico, even if that’s not where they originally came from. 

As of last week, the Mexican government reported receiving 38,000 citizens of Mexico expelled by the Trump administration and some 6,000 foreign nationals that the U.S. decided not to fly directly back to their countries. Still, the administration has green-lighted plenty of flights back to Central and South America.  

While Mexican citizens are familiar with their country and no doubt can make their way to safety, some are reluctant to return to cartel warn-torn communities in Michoacan, Guerrero, Sinaloa or Jalisco.  

Faith-based advocacy groups are calling on the administration to restore the right to asylum. Secular groups like the ACLU are taking their case to the courts. And religious volunteers who assisted the migrants in the past four years hope the election of a new American pope – Pope Leo of suburban Chicago – can make a difference in persuading the U.S. and other industrialized nations to again welcome those fleeing for their lives in other countries. 

Join the award-winning Border Report team every Thursday at 3 p.m. CT at borderreport.com for a live, in-depth discussion about people living, working and migrating along the U.S.-Mexico border.

You can also watch past episodes of the Border Report Live, highlighting not only immigration and border security, but cartel violence in Mexico and the countries' ongoing water dispute on the border.

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