Florence Project 'Heartbroken' By SCOTUS Decision On Asylum

Published: Friday, September 13, 2019 - 5:24pm
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An Arizona nonprofit that gives free legal help to detained migrants said President Trump’s so-called third-country asylum ban puts lives in danger.

The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project said it’s heartbroken that the U.S. Supreme Court let the policy go forward, at least temporarily.

The Florence Project has been around for decades. Lately, it’s had to quickly adjust to new policies aimed at cracking down on migration. Laura Belous is an advocacy attorney for the group.

“The changes that we’ve seen in the last two and a half years have been unprecedented,” Belous said. 

One major change is the government’s new power to block migrants from getting asylum, if they pass through another country while on their way to the U.S.-Mexico border

“Given the fact that the majority of people who we are serving right now are recent entrants, this ban will have a really outsize(d) effect on the majority of our clients,” Belous said.

Belous said there are ways other than asylum that migrants can get the right to stay in the U.S. But those kinds of cases are often harder to win.  

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