"In the summer of 2020, I was working as a paralegal in Austin, Texas, remotely filling out asylum applications for migrants who were trapped in a dangerous limbo. A landmark policy of the first Trump administration-euphemistically called the "Migrant Protection Protocols," or MPP-was keeping tens of thousands of immigrants stateless and often homeless in Mexico's border regions while their asylum cases were adjudicated in U.S. border courts."
"As much as I tried to stop it, my number had been passed around the Mexican borderland all summer, and I was inundated with calls. By the time Irma, a Venezuelan asylum-seeker who'd recently been deported from the U.S. border to Mexico, first contacted me, I had a standard answer: We were at capacity. I could not help anyone. (Irma asked that her name be changed for this because she fears retaliation from the U.S. government)."
In the summer of 2020, a paralegal in Austin worked remotely filling asylum applications for migrants stranded under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). MPP forced tens of thousands to wait in Mexico, often stateless, homeless, and exposed to violence while U.S. border courts adjudicated their cases. Many missed court dates or suffered kidnappings, assaults, or sexual violence; over half lost the chance to pursue asylum. Legal aid resources were overwhelmed and at capacity. An asylum-seeker, Irma, described her son’s death after deportation and asked how to recover his ashes; fear of retaliation affected name disclosure.
Read at Slate Magazine
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