Human Rights Watch Issues Report on Salvadoran Deportees
Yesterday, Human Rights Watch issued a report entitled, Deported to Danger, summarizing its findings after tracking the fate of Salvadoran asylum seekers returned by the United States to their homeland. They found that “in many cases the US is putting Salvadorans in harm’s way in circumstances where it knows or should know that harm is likely.” Many of those returned have either been killed or subjected to “sexual violence, torture, and other harm,” exactly the reason for which they sought asylum in the first place. The Trump administration is deporting Salvadorans discounting the very real threats they face upon return, “despite clear prohibitions in international law on returning people to risk of persecution or torture.”
Human Rights Watch recommends that “instead of deterring and deporting people, the US should focus on receiving those who cross its border with dignity and providing them a fair chance to explain why they need protection. Before deporting Salvadorans living in the United States, either with TPS or in some other immigration status, US authorities should take into account the extraordinary risks former long-term residents of the US may face if sent back to the country of their birth.” And they specifically urge the following six steps …
- The Trump administration should repeal the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP); the two Asylum Bans; and the Asylum Cooperation Agreements.
- The Attorney General of the United States should reverse his decisions that restrict gender-based, gang-related, and family-based grounds for asylum.
- Congress and the Executive Branch should ensure that US funding for Mexican migration enforcement activities does not erode the right to seek and receive asylum in Mexico.
- Congress should immediately exercise its appropriation power by: 1) Refraining from providing additional funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unless and until abusive policies and practices that separate families, employ unnecessary detention, violate due process rights, and violate the right to seek asylum are stopped; 2) Prohibiting the use of funds to implement the Migrant Protection Protocols, the “Asylum Bans,” or the Asylum Cooperation Agreements, or any subsequent revisions to those protocols and agreements that block access to the right to seek asylum in the United States.
- Congress should exercise its oversight authority by requiring the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Inspector General to produce reports on the United States’ fulfilment of its asylum and protection responsibilities, including by collecting and releasing accurate data on the procedural experiences of asylum seekers (access to counsel, wait times, staff capacity to assess claims, humanitarian and protection resources available) and on harms experienced by people deported from the United States to their countries of origin.
- Congress should enact, and the President should sign, legislation that would broadly protect individuals with Temporary Protected Status (including Salvadorans) and DACA recipients, such as the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, but without the overly broad restrictions based on juvenile conduct or information from flawed gang databases
If we indeed remain a government “of the people,” we must make our voices heard and work to reverse this cruel policy!
