Trump Era Ushers in New Unofficial Policy on Asylum-Seekers
After a drug trafficker killed her father, raped her and forced her to transport narcotics from Guatemala to her home in El Salvador, threatening to kill her six siblings if she defected, says Lilian Uriba, the 18-year-old fled for the U.S. Last month, Uriba passed the first phase of her asylum case – but she waits indefinitely in detention, since Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied her release.
"If I don't get out, I won't get the proof I need for asylum. I can't even make a call outside," says Uriba in the visitation room of T. Don Hutto Residential Center, a 512-bed immigrant detention facility in rural Texas. "I worry about my family every day. I try not to sleep, so I don't have bad dreams."
Uriba is experiencing the impact of a new unofficial national policy: ICE has virtually stopped granting detained immigrants bond or parole, keeping them incarcerated throughout their cases unless they successfully appeal to an immigration judge.
"Across the board there's been a significant drop in bond issuances by ICE. It's been pretty noticeable nationwide," says Heather Prendergast, chair of the American Immigration Lawyers' ICE Liaison Committee. "Generally speaking the sentiment is that ICE is denying all bonds."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/trump-era-ushers-in-new-unofficial-policy-on-asylum-seekers-w473930?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=040417_16
