New Mexico Joins Fight To Protect Rights Of Asylum Seekers

SANTA FE, NM----Attorney General Balderas has joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general in filing a comment letter to protect the rights of asylum-seekers. Under a new rule, states will be blocked from welcoming asylum-seekers. Instead the Trump Administration is attempting to ignore their claims by sending asylum-seekers, many of whom are fleeing violence and persecution, to third countries that have signed asylum cooperative agreements with the federal government.

"We have a humanitarian obligation to help and protect families fleeing from violence and political corruption in other countries, and the Trump administration's latest attempt to turn its back on these vulnerable people is un-American and cruel," said Attorney General Balderas. "We will continue to fight for those without a voice and to stop these horrific policies.”

"Giving asylum-seekers a safe haven from persecution is an essential value of the United States. In contrast, the Trump Administration’s interim final rule harms thousands of already vulnerable individuals by barring them from seeking protection in the United States and forcing them into dangerous circumstances in third countries that are not equipped to handle their claims,” the Attorney General added.

Currently, Guatemala is the only country where an asylum cooperation agreement is officially in effect. However, Guatemala has insufficient staff to handle humanitarian claims. There are only 12 officials working on asylum cases in the entire country, and only three of them are tasked with interviewing applicants.

Further, the rule provides no safeguards against family separation and contains no requirement that families who arrived together in the United States even be removed to the same country.

In addition, the rule also subjects asylum-seekers to an additional screening the results of which may bar them from seeking to enter the United States permanently. However, asylum-seekers will only receive a written notice of this condition, yet nothing in the new rule requires that notice to be in a language the asylum-seeker can read or understand.

The federal government has already announced compacts with Honduras and El Salvador that would extend the agreement with Guatemala to those two countries as well.

In their filing the attorneys general argue that for individuals who are fleeing violence and traveling on foot for thousands of miles, the new rules pose an extremely high burden that requires not just an extensive understanding of U.S. immigration laws but also a working knowledge of the language and conditions of countries they may have never even visited.

With limited time to prepare a response and potentially without access to legal counsel, the letter argues that the additional screenings risk creating a discriminatory formality that would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The coalition argue therefore that the Administration’s new rule is both arbitrary and capricious as well as being contrary to both the Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Attorney General Balderas was joined by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia in submitting the letter.

A copy of the letter can be viewed at: https://www.nmag.gov/uploads/PressRelease/48737699ae174b30ac51a7eb286e661f/Attorney_General_Balderas_Joins_Multistate_Effort_to_Protect_the_Rights_of_Asylum_Seekers.pdf