Human Rights Groups Sue Over Trump’s Asylum Policy

Via press release from the ACLU:

The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigrant Justice Center, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and Human Rights First filed a federal lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s policies regarding so-called “safe third country” agreements with Guatemala and other nations that force people fleeing for their lives to seek asylum in the same dangerous region they fled.

The policies block asylum seekers from ever receiving a chance at asylum in the U.S. They are instead being sent to Guatemala — and soon to El Salvador and Honduras. These countries are plagued by epidemic violence, instability, and ill-equipped asylum systems.

People have the legal right to apply for asylum in the U.S. unless they can be sent to another safe country via a valid agreement. However, the country must first provide “access to a full and fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum” in order to qualify as safe. These countries fail to meet that standard.