DHS Deporting Women Without Asking If They're Afraid to Go Home, Advocate Says

[PunkinPi]

The Department of Homeland Security is breaking the law to rush separated immigrant mothers out of the U.S., according to an advocate working with detained women.

Laura Lunn, managing attorney for the detention program of the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, told The Daily Beast that numerous detained women she’s spoken to say they were placed in expedited removal proceedings without being asked by Customs and Border Patrol officials if they were afraid of returning to their home countries.

“It’s been a significant number of people we’ve met with who say they were never asked if they had a fear,” Lunn said.

That’s important because before DHS can put an immigrant into expedited removal proceedings, the law requires that officials determine if the immigrant is seeking asylum, according to immigration attorneys.

“That’s a violation of the law,” Lunn said. “When somebody is put into expedited removal, the government has to ask them if they have a fear of return because that’s what puts the brakes on just deporting them, and that is their right under the asylum statute. And that’s not happening.”

“That’s not a new phenomenon,” she added, “but we’re seeing it in mass scale right now.”

More -> https://www.thedailybeast.com/dhs-deporting-women-without-asking-if-theyre-afraid-to-go-home-advocate-says
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The ripple effects of this policy are going to be felt for a long, long time.

[Solly Mack]

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