Asylum Seekers Claim CBP Officers Denied Their Requests to P
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HIDALGO – Several Central American families said they were told changes happened to U.S. policy regarding asylum at U.S.-Mexico ports of entry.
The Hidalgo-Reynosa port of entry is seeing a steady flow of asylum seekers. CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported last month how Central Americans are presenting themselves at the bridge requesting protection in the U.S.
Among them are Irma Hernandez and Antonio Cavachuela who traveled from Honduras with their daughter. They said they’re one of those families being denied the opportunity to plead their case to an asylum officer.
At the other side of the border, near the Hidalgo-Reynosa bridge sits Nuestra Senora De Guadalupe, a catholic shelter for migrants. Hernandez said they go to the shelter without the help of a smuggler.
“It took us seven months because we stopped to work, to get money for bus tickets and food to get to the border,” she said.
Cavachuela said they survived a gunshot wound once. He said gangs were threatening to kill him and his family.
The couple went to present their case and claim asylum, but immigration officials told them to come back later because there was no room for them in the office. Upon visiting the office a second time, officials told them the U.S. no longer offered asylum.
“Some of them told us, ‘Go back. That it’s over. Definitely, we cannot take you anymore.’” Cavachuela said. “The officers told us, ‘I don’t know who let you come through here.’”
He said he was told there were no more people coming into the U.S.
CHANNEL 5 NEWS reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection in regards to new possible asylum procedures. They responded with the following statement:
“Officers are required to process them for an interview with an asylum officer. CBP officer are not authorized to determine or evaluate the validity of the fear expressed. The applicant does not have to specifically request asylum, they simply must express fear of being returned to their country.”
The American Immigration Council sent a letter to U.S. Homeland Security officials saying border officials are denying rights to asylum seekers at ports of entry along the southern border.
Diego Iniguez-Lopez works for a pro bono law group that assists detainees at the Dilley Detention Center. He said the couple’s experience isn’t the only one.
“We know of people who have been seeing this for several months, as far back as a year. We’ve been starting to track this for the last few months,” he said. “Starting in November, we saw an increase in cases where asylum-seeking families were denied entry.”
Iniguez-Lopez also gave testimonies from mothers who said they were not allowed to claim asylum.
One mother, Amanda, claimed she and her son tried to cross the Hidalgo-Reynosa Bridge four times. Her asylum claim is about the 18th Street gang extorting her and raping her in El Salvador.
She said immigration officials at the bridge told her the U.S. was no longer accepting mothers with children.
Another woman, Carolina, claimed her husband joined the 18th Street gang in Guatemala. She told CBP officers that she feared going back to Honduras because her husband threatened to kill her and kidnap her son. Custom officials told her it was the same reason why everyone was coming.
“Many of them, after being detained by immigration officials at the bridge, found another way in and they crossed the river without inspection,” Iniguez-Lopez said.
The couple said they don’t have the $15,000 it would take to pay a smuggler to guide them across the Rio Grande. They said cartel smugglers wait for them outside the shelter. They’re afraid to walk to the bridge and try to claim asylum again.
“That’s the problem. We are afraid of the insecurity. A lot of people who came here to the shelter were robbed,” Cavachuela said.
Cavachuela and Hernandez said they’re just grateful for their temporary haven.
Immigration advocates said they have more than 30 documented cases of asylum-seekers being denied at ports of entry.
CBP said they are following U.S. policy, but when ports become busy they provide OTM (other than Mexican) asylum-seekers with a list of Mexican government resources and an appointment to return to the bridge for processing.
The couple said they were not provided with any list.
Related Links:
- Questions & Answers: Credible Fear Screening: https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum/questions-answers-credible-fear-screening
- Submit a CBP Complaint: https://help.cbp.gov/app/forms/complaint/session/L3RpbWUvMTQ4NTM5MTI3MS9zaWQvRmdPRzZDOW4%3D
- Report Corruption, Waste, Fraud, Abuse, Mismanagement and Misconduct to the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General: https://www.oig.dhs.gov/hotline/hotline.php
- American Immigration Council: U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Systemic Denial of Entry to Asylum Seekers at Ports of Entry on U.S.-Mexico Border
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