https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino...blocking-people-seeking-asylum-report-n754416
In a statement at that time, Nicole Ramos of the Latin America Working Group said that she had escorted 68 asylum seekers to a port of entry and witnessed CBP officers, supervisors and private security guards try to turn people seeking asylum away or deny them an interview.
“I have heard all of these officers state that a person cannot seek asylum at a port-of-entry; that they must go to the consulate or the embassy; that they simply do not qualify; ... that asylum is no longer available, that they can only apply at one single port of entry,” Ramos stated then.
Leah Chavla, a program officer with the Women’s Refugee Commission, said such denials are continuing to happen. She said she and a colleague interviewed a number of migrants in Texas and northern Mexico last month and “I’m able to tell you there are people who have been turned back.”
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Human Rights First pointed out in its report that Trump acknowledged U.S. obligations to asylum seekers in his anti-terrorism executive order of March 6. The order states that nothing in the order should “limit the ability of an individual seeking asylum … consistent with the laws of the United States.”
But the groups say that's not what is happening on the ground.
Human Rights First reported that the rhetoric and policies of the Trump administration have emboldened agents to throw up barriers when people request asylum when they seek it at the border.
For example, in February, the family of a youth who was killed by Mara Salvatrucha after a U.S. immigration judge denied his asylum, requested asylum at the Hidalgo, Texas, port of entry.
According to Human Rights First, a border officer told them “You cannot be here, no Hondurans. If you don’t leave I will have to use force to remove you.” When the family tried a second time, CBP agents forcibly removed the family and forced them to return to Mexico.
