Lawsuit Challenges US Gov’t Over Sending Asylum Seekers To Mexico

Human rights groups sued the US President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday over its policy of sending non-Mexican migrants who cross the southern border to seek asylum in the United States back to Mexico to wait while their requests are being processed.

The policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, announced in December is aimed at cutting the number of families applying for asylum in the United States, a legal process that can take months or years.

The lawsuit filed in US District Court in California by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other organizations says the policy puts asylum seekers in danger and violates protections they are entitled to under US and international law.

Serious doubts exist over whether Mexico can keep Central American asylum seekers who are fleeing poverty and crime safe, especially in border towns that are often more violent than the cities they left.

Once back in Mexico, asylum seekers could wait months or years for their immigration cases to be heard. A backlog of more than 800,000 cases is pending in immigration courts.