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U.S. NEWS Saturday 23 November 2019

Asylum-seekers in Arizona to be bused to Texas, then Mexico

year, the El Paso Sector saw making it nearly impossible seekers and places them
nearly 30,000 families come to seek asylum in the U.S. in grave danger by making
through, while Tucson saw Tucson saw an uptick in them wait in cities where
just over 1,700. families, to about 1,900 in even the U.S. government
The numbers dropped September. warns against visiting.
quickly over the summer in Immigrants and advocates A legal challenge of the
the busiest crossing spots, say the program violates program is pending in
the result of several policies basic rights of asylum- California.q

In this Nov. 6, 2019 file photo, Border Patrol agents apprehend
a man thought to have entered the country illegally, near
McAllen, Texas, along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) — U.S. im- is a game-changer in ad-
migration authorities have dressing the ongoing bor-
started busing asylum-seek- der crisis," Acting Depart-
ers who cross the border ment of Homeland Security
in Arizona to Texas, where Secretary Chad Wolf said
they are sent to Mexico to in a tweet Friday.
await court hearings, ac- The Washington Post first
cording to reports and ad- reported that authorities
vocacy groups. planned on busing asylum-
The government said its seekers from Arizona to
highly criticized program El Paso. Migrants appre-
known colloquially as Re- hended in Arizona will also
main in Mexico was now in be subject to the program,
effect all along the border. called Migrant Protection
Critics say the move makes Protocols.
it nearly impossible to gain The program was launched
asylum in the U.S. in January and has forced
"At taxpayer expense, more than 55,000 asylum-
this decision will transport seekers to wait in Mexico.
people seeking asylum They often wait in squalid
in Arizona over 300 miles camps, and many are kid-
to a dangerous Mexican napped, robbed or extort-
city, where it is difficult to ed.
access legal services and Until now, the program
where few people have didn't exist in the Tucson
the support of their family Sector, which over the past
and communities," said Ka- year has seen just a frac-
tie Sharar, director of com- tion of the migrant families
munications for the Kino who have crossed else-
Border Initiative, a Catholic where along the border.
organization that helps mi- The Rio Grande Valley, El
grants. Paso and Yuma, Arizona,
U.S. officials say the pro- have experienced the
gram has helped drasti- largest volumes of migrant
cally reduce the number families, many seeking asy-
of migrants arriving at the lum.
border. In May, at the height of im-
The program "works and migrant apprehensions this