Chinese Illegal Aliens Turned Back at US Border; ACLU Fights for Them in Court

Paul Bedard writing a few days ago at the Washington Examiner reported that the Trump Administration’s policy known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) has allowed the DHS to force foreign nationals claiming they want asylum to wait on the Mexican side of the border, but that won’t last if the ACLU gets its way.

And, so far, they are making legal headway in thwarting the President’s efforts to keep Americans safe.

From the Washington Examiner:

328 Chinese nationals caught entering US illegally

At least 328 Chinese nationals trying to enter the United States illegally since January have been intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials as part of heightened awareness on the borders to block the coronavirus from slipping into the nation.

Officials told Secrets Wednesday that since January, 328 Chinese were “apprehended” and sent back across the border or repatriated consistent with existing policy and procedure. Another three from South Korea, where the virus is also spreading, were also caught.

 

Some 227 foreign nationals from other nations who tried to enter through legal border points from Feb. 2 through March 3 have been turned away due to the travel restriction ordered by the president and implemented by the Department of Homeland Security, officials said.

[….]

Senior administration officials said that the president’s three-year focus on the border, the new wall, and the policy of keeping illegal immigrants in Mexico while awaiting permission to enter the U.S., have gone a long way to keep the virus away, especially at the southern border.

But acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Tuesday raised concerns about a court challenge to the Migrant Protection Protocols policy of keeping migrants in Mexico, where the coronavirus has also landed.

“MPP has an uncertain future. We know from experience that the journey to the U.S. border puts migrants in poor conditions — and they often arrive with no passports, medical histories, or travel manifests. The administration will continue to closely monitor the virus globally, as well as in our hemisphere, and will adjust our proactive measures as necessary,” he said.

Added a senior administration official:

“We have a unique public health threat posed by individuals arriving unlawfully at the border. Any halting of MPP would exacerbate that threat.”

Who cares says the ACLU!

[Court:] “the MPP is causing extreme and irreversible harm to plaintiffs” (to the Chinese trying to get into the US).

From NPR:

Court Blocks Trump’s ‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy Along Part Of The Border

A federal appeals court has decided to block the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” plan in two states along the U.S. border, following back-and-forth rulings over the program.

In its order late Wednesday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said that next week the administration will have to stop making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for the U.S. to process their claims, but that the court ban applies only to areas in its jurisdiction, Arizona and California.

The decision comes less than a week after the appeals court briefly blocked the program, then quickly suspended that order.

On Wednesday, the court said it remains “very clear” that a lower court was correct in ruling that the Trump administration program — technically called the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP — may violate the law. “It is equally clear,” the court added, “that the MPP is causing extreme and irreversible harm to plaintiffs,” many of whom are asylum-seekers themselves.

Read about the twists and turns of the case in the court system. Then see here what the ACLU says.

“If the administration had any respect for the law or any sense of decency, it would end this program immediately,” Judy Rabinovitz, special counsel in the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, which has challenged the program, said in a statement released after the court order.

“We will continue working to permanently end this illegal and inhumane policy.”

The Tahirih Justice Center, another nonprofit group fighting the policy, expressed frustration at the limited scope of the court’s injunction.

Continue reading here.

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