{"id":6627,"date":"2019-02-01T11:39:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T03:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=6627"},"modified":"2019-02-04T10:15:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T02:15:14","slug":"amnesty-condemns-disgraceful-us-remain-in-mexico-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=6627","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty condemns \u2018disgraceful\u2019 US \u2018Remain in Mexico\u2019 policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>MEXICO CITY, Feb 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Amnesty International said the United States is violating international law by sending asylum seekers<br>back to Mexico to await their court dates, a policy it condemned as<br>\u201cdisgraceful, mean-spirited and unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"615\" src=\"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/migrate-1024x615.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6639\" srcset=\"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/migrate-1024x615.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/migrate-300x180.jpg 300w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/migrate-768x461.jpg 768w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/migrate-600x360.jpg 600w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/migrate.jpg 1839w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption> <br>Esmeralda* with her daughter Sara* in Chiapas, Mexico. photo courtesy of\u00a0UNHCR <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking a day after the US sent the first asylum applicant back across its<br>southern border \u2014 a 55-year-old Honduran man who arrived in a migrant<br>caravan last year \u2014 a team of top officials from the rights group accused<br>the Trump administration of placing people who are fleeing for their lives at even greater risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis clearly constitutes refoulement, the return of individuals who are at<br>risk of persecution\u2026 to a country where they might be subjected to further<br>harm,\u201d Colm O\u2019Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International Ireland, told a press briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Donald Trump announced the new policy last year, dubbing it<br>\u201cRemain in Mexico.\u201d The Department of Homeland Security has since rebranded it the \u201cMigrant Protection Protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The policy aims to curb what Trump calls \u201ccatch and release\u201d \u2014 allowing<br>migrants who cross the border without papers and claim asylum to remain in the US while their cases are processed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officials say many of those people never show up for their court dates and<br>disappear into the US as illegal immigrants. Most are migrants fleeing<br>poverty and gang violence in Central America\u2019s \u201cNorthern Triangle\u201d: Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US asylum system is badly backlogged, with 800,000 requests currently<br>pending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the argument that the new policy is about insufficient capacity is<br>\u201cabsurd,\u201d said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is simply one more measure meant to make the system as inaccessible, punitive and fearful as possible, with an eye on the part of the US government to deter others from arriving. And under international refugee law, deterrence is absolutely forbidden,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Migrants have been tortured, raped and killed in Mexico\u2019s often violent<br>border regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump himself tweeted Thursday that the record number of murders registered in Mexico last year \u2014 33,341 \u2014 was \u201ca big contributor to the Humanitarian Crisis taking place on our Southern Border.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US has not said how many asylum seekers it plans to return under the<br>new policy. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MEXICO CITY, Feb 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Amnesty International said the United States is violating international law by sending asylum seekersback to Mexico to await their court dates, a policy it condemned as\u201cdisgraceful, mean-spirited and unlawful.\u201d Speaking a day after the US sent the first asylum applicant back across itssouthern border \u2014 a 55-year-old Honduran man [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}