Alex Mensing works at the University of San Francisco School of Law's Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic. Ian Philabaum is the Project Manager for Innovation Law Lab.­­­­­­­ They work alongside a devoted team of advocates, lawyers, and volunteers to monitor human rights violations of asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border and throughout the United States. Here is Alex and Ian’s firsthand account of some of the illegal actions they have witnessed.

The third time Magdalena tried to flee Mexico, she showed up at the US border armed with a document describing the reasons she fled with her children from their home. The declaration details organized criminals from a cartel forcing their way into her home, physically and sexually abused her in front of her three-year old son, and showing her a video of a man whose hands had been chopped off. This, she said, is what would happen to her and her family if she didn’t give them her older son. “Don’t even think about going to the police,” they added. “They tell us everything.”

The Mexican state of Guerrero has become a hotbed of violence  and the Mexican government has been unable to control the bloodshed. Magdalena, a single mother, grabbed a few pairs of clothes for each of them and fled with her family to the US. Because she fears for her life and does not believe the Mexican government can protect her, they are eligible to apply for asylum in the US. She has family in Los Angeles, so they chose to cross in Tijuana, Mexico, the nearest border crossing. What she found at the border was far from the secure environment she dreamed of giving her children.

When Magdalena reached the Tijuana-San Ysidro port of entry she was stopped. A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer told her that her family was not eligible for asylum in the US, and there was nothing they could do for them. This is blatantly false, an abuse of power, and a violation of their rights under international and domestic law.

Magdalena and her children were forced back into the same country that made her run for her life. She was left in limbo, in a shelter for women and children in Tijuana with nothing but a couple of bags and the clothes on her back. After CBP illegally turned her away, Magdalena spoke with a Tijuana-based immigration attorney named Nicole Ramos.

We work with Nicole on advocacy issues surrounding asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. Nicole took Magdalena’s case pro-bono and prepared all the documents an asylum seeker would need to begin proceedings in the US. It is important to note that none of this is a requirement to be able to seek asylum in the US. According to Title 8 of US code section 1225, Magdalena should have been able to present herself as an asylum seeker to a CBP officer, who after confirming her and her children’s identities, would put them in proceedings to speak with an asylum officer or immigration judge—the only officials qualified to make a determination on the validity of an asylum request.

Along with a group of advocates, we agreed to accompany Magdalena and her children to the border to ensure that CBP received them properly. Nicole emailed all the documentation to CBP ahead of time, too. When we reached the physical line that separates Mexico from the US, we were stopped by several private security guards on the US side. Despite not being immigration officers, it is Paragon Security guards who first ask intending border crossers for their identification. When Magdalena told them that she wanted to request asylum in the US, they told her to go away and talk to Mexican Immigration officials.

We immediately requested to speak with a CBP supervisor and the private security guards called one over to speak with us. The CBP supervisor explained to Magdalena that she could not simply walk up to the border and request asylum, because there is a process they have with Mexican immigration officials. After three CBP supervisors tried to convince us that Magdalena and her children had to speak with Mexican Immigration officials, they finally allowed them to cross into US territory and into CBP custody to be processed as asylum seekers.

The following morning, we received a call from Magdalena. She told us that they were back in Mexico. We met her near the entrance to the port of entry, where they had been expelled, and she told us her story in more detail.  Once in CBP custody, they had been taken into a room where they spent the night. They were given food and nobody discussed their case with them. The following morning, they were taken to another room where they were met by Mexican Immigration officials who told them that there was nothing the US could do for them and that President Trump had said they couldn’t request asylum in the US. They were sent back to Mexico with no documentation of being processed by CBP.

There are three important items to note here. First, Magdalena is Mexican. She is fleeing cartel violence in Mexico, and has determined that the Mexican government is unable to control the cartels or guarantee her safety. Going to speak to officials from the same government that has proven inept in protecting certain members of its citizenry, such as Magdalena, is preposterous. Second, there is no program for Mexican nationals to receive refugee status in the US, which is why Magdalena has to ask the US directly for relief through asylum. Third, Mexican immigration officials should have no role in managing who gets to request asylum in the US. There is no published official documentation of such an agreement, and CBP has no authority to direct persons seeking asylum in the US to Mexican Immigration officials.

This is not an isolated incident. Immigrant rights advocacy organizations have documented increased cases of CBP turning vulnerable families away and sending them back to Mexico. A formal complaint has been submitted to the Department of Homeland Security, and a hearing request has been submitted with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Even though the US swore to provide relief refugees and asylum seekers when they signed the 1967 International Refugee Convention, these officials are being directed to ignore immigrants’ pleas. They are disregarding homicide rates in the Northern Triangle of Central America, which show El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala in the top ten of highest in the world in non-wartime countries. Immigration courts in certain jurisdictions of the US are overlooking updated country conditions and their hearings have been described as “what amount to death penalty cases heard in traffic court settings.” At our borders and in our courts, asylum seekers are being criminalized  by the same system that supposedly serves to protect them.

Add to this the US Government’s collusion with Mexican immigration officials to turn people away. Together, Mexican officials and the CBP telling asylum seekers their claims are not valid, even though they aren’t qualified to make that determination. Many are detained and deported by Mexican Immigration before they even reach the US border, and Mexico’s track record on human rights violations against Central Americans is far worse than the USA’s.

Because CBP officers are turning away asylum seekers at the border, many are forced to try to cross without inspection. Trump’s proposed wall is guaranteed to lead to increased violence against migrants but will fail to deter people from continuing to cross. This wall will represent another impediment to achieving safety for asylum seekers

After the Trump Administration issued an executive order banning people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, we as US citizens and residents showed overwhelming solidarity in rejecting his order. We demonstrated en masse across the country, pooling our skills together. We showed up at airports to provide legal support, interpretation assistance, and to demand just treatment of refugees.

We succeeded in overturning the order because lawyers filed emergency lawsuits at six of these airports, and judges ordered that the US Gov’t cease deporting any person with legal right to be in the US, including individuals from the 7 majority Muslim countries. We proved that we have more power together than any government.

We won at the airports. Now we need to win the fight at the wall. The US-Mexico border has long dehumanized immigrants, and President Trump’s language perpetuates the myth that immigrants pose a threat to the United States. Border Patrol, CBP, and Paragon Security are more emboldened than ever by his discriminatory border security agenda to lash out against immigrants and people of color. In one exchange at the port of entry, we asked the private security guards what right they had to check our passports, to which one replied, “we’re the ones that keep you safe at night.” We need to fear not those fleeing violence, but those in the Alt-Right who criminalize, demonize and terrorize undocumented people, including refugees and asylum-seekers. But we—if we train, organize, and mobilize at our ports of entry and in our communities —have the power to write a different story, one in which we, the people of the United States take responsibility and show compassion for those who arrive at our doors in search of refuge.

To the border.