A nonprofit human rights organization released audio it says reveals a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent repeatedly turning away asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the audio from February, two U.S. immigration advocates are accompanying a Honduran family to the border as they request asylum.
The border agent tells the advocates that the family must go to INM [Instituto Nacional de Migración], or Mexico’s immigration agency to register first.
“They can’t come in here. Once they go to INM, we get them from INM,” the male agent says.
One male advocate says they tried that and it didn’t work, to which the agent says that is the way it has always worked and continues to tell them they cannot enter the country.
The advocates tell the border agent U.S. laws require agents to process asylum seekers on arrival and turning them away violates their human rights.
“They’re not going to come in. You are wasting your time,” the agent says.
Eventually, a CBP supervisor was called and processed the asylum request.
“The audio released today is a stark confirmation of what Human Rights First has reported: that CBP agents are illegally turning back vulnerable individuals seeking protection from violence and persecution,” said Human Rights First’s Shaw Drake.
In response, CBP said as an agency it “adheres to law and policy on processing asylum claims and does not tolerate abuse of these policies.”
A Human Rights First report released in June documented dozens of instances showing border agents turning away asylum seekers.
Those turned away, according to the report, include: “an artist from Colombia fleeing political persecution at the hands of violent paramilitaries, a Turkish opposition political party member, a former Guatemalan police officer who resisted gangs, a Salvadoran child of Christian pastors who witnessed the gang murder of his sister, a Mexican fleeing police kidnapping after reporting cartel violence, Cubans requesting asylum, and transgender women from El Salvador.”
Turning away asylum seekers has been an ongoing complaint, with some complaints coming before President Trump’s time.
The full audio of the Honduran family’s struggle can be heard here.
