How Will Asylum Processing At The U.S.-Mexico Border Change?
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A 2019 video by the Daily Mail shows migrant-stowaways on a freight train in Mexico. The infamous part of the trip north has taken limbs and lives.
A year earlier, Juan Carlos Castro Flores had a tough choice to make before trying to board “The Beast” as it moved.
“To get on the train, one should not be carrying anything,” he said in Spanish.
The friends Flores had met since fleeing Honduras had all shed their stuff. But Flores was carrying a red backpack with nylon-wrapped proof that he’d been persecuted.
“I tightened the backpack around my torso and shoulder so it wouldn’t move,” he said. “When I fell into the rail car, I couldn’t believe I was on the train.”
Sitting next to Flores as he told the story was Richard Leveille. After retirement, he and his wife, Janice, got involved with the Kino Border Initiative, which led to them becoming Flores’ family here. Everyone wore masks and we met at a picnic table outside a coffee shop in downtown Phoenix.
They talked about 2018, when Flores won political asylum in his early 20s.
“He had the brilliant foresight to take with him all of the paperwork from a series of cases in Honduras where he had been the victim of horrible abuse,” said Richard Leveille.
Without the records, Flores likely would have been sent back to Honduras. Syracuse University reported that asylum-denial rates hit a record high under former President Trump. But people working in the system say fixing it isn’t as simple as just going back to the way things were before 2017.
A recent order by President Biden gives license to reimagine asylum at the southwest border. A union chapter of federal workers who screen those seeking protection wants the U.S. to follow its own laws. A local legal aid group hopes for a remodel on a system built decades ago.
“Part of the problem is asylum was envisioned in the wake of World War II for a world that no longer exists,” said Alex Miller, managing attorney on the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project’s border action team.
The system was set up to protect people fleeing government persecution, not organized crime or individual people.
“Not everyone fits neatly within a protected social group,” she said.
Miller wants migrants arriving to seek U.S. protection treated like they’ve survived trauma. Miller wants them to get legal help, instead of detention.
“I think ultimately dreaming pretty big, what we would want is an asylum system that focuses on welcoming people, rather than treating them like criminals,” she said.
"“I think ultimately dreaming pretty big, what we would want is an asylum system that focuses on welcoming people, rather than treating them like criminals."
— Alex Miller, Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project
Biden’s order allows for this type of overhaul, but Miller said the details are not concrete. A union with asylum specialists working for U.S, Citizenship and Immigration Services expects to help the administration restore and improve border processing. Members have a wish too.
“It would really be to reestablish the independence of the asylum corps," said Michael Knowles, president of the Local 1924 in Washington, D.C.
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 1924 chapter also wants to redo training for deciding if a migrant has a credible fear of going back to a country. Knowles said it was infected by influence from the Trump administration.
“I hesitate to use that word. Our training has been infected by some of these bad policies,” he said.
A revamping must put the U.S. back in line with international rules, case law and presidential orders, Knowles said. The asylum corps he’s been part of for decades was born from a lawsuit settlement aimed at making the U.S. follow its own law. Knowles believes return to what’s legal is needed again. Doing so will not mean that everyone who wants asylum gets it.
“But they have the right to knock at the door and ask for protection,” he said.
Flores heard of migrants beaten in the desert while trying to enter the U.S. So he went to a port of entry with the bag of evidence on why he fled Honduras.
“The proof is what helped be able to stay here in the United States,” he said.
Flores still spent months in detention and met the Leveilles. When he won asylum, Flores went to live with them.
“Just knowing [Juan Carlos] in our lives has been wonderful. He’s like the son we never had,” said Janice Leveille.
Flores is on the road to citizenship. He credits the Leveilles with helping him find an apartment and job so he can take care of himself.
