This archive report was first published on 19 July 2019.
On July 16, 2019, a new U.S. policy took effect, requiring asylum-seekers crossing a third country on the way to the United States to first pursue safe-haven there, precluding claims for the thousands who traverse Central American countries and Mexico to reach the U.S. border.
Although migrants could still be granted interviews with U.S. asylum officers or face a U.S. immigration judge, the bar will be much higher.
President Donald Trump's latest crackdown on immigration ahead of his 2020 re-election bid does not change the way asylum seekers are initially processed at the border, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed on Wednesday.
“Aliens subject to the third-country-transit asylum bar will be processed through existing procedures,” a DHS spokeswoman, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.
Human rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have sued to block the measure, saying it violates U.S. asylum obligations and forces people to remain in countries “rife with danger.”
Despite the new policy, migrants in Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican border towns were cautiously optimistic as U.S. officials still called those on lists of asylum seekers to cross the bridge into the United States and apply.
According to Ciudad Juarez human rights director Rogelio Pinal, ten people were called and entered the United States in the morning, and 10 more followed in the afternoon.
“After waiting for so long, we want it to be worth it,” Karina Reyes, a 34-year-old from Cuba, said between swigs of Diet Coke, saying she had been too nervous to sleep the night before.
Reyes was among the first summoned across the bridge to the Customs and Border Protection offices since the rule took effect.
