About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 29, 2020)
TODAYS TOP HEADLINES The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Saturday, February 29, 2020 3A Trump policy paused Court rules asylum-seekers cannot be made to wait in Mexico BY ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press SAN DIEGO - Dealing a significant blow to a sig nature Trump administra tion immigration policy, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the government can no longer make asylum- seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. The government faced a setback from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Cir cuit Court of Appeals that may prove temporary if President Donald Trump’s administration appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has consistently sided with Trump on immigration and border security poli cies. Chad Wolf, the acting Homeland Security secre tary, said he was working with the Justice Department to “expeditiously appeal this inexplicable decision.” The “Remain in Mexico” policy, known officially as “Migrant Protection Proto cols,” took effect in January 2019 in San Diego and gradu ally spread across the south ern border. About 60,000 people have been sent back to wait for hearings, and offi cials believe it is a big reason why illegal border crossings plummeted about 80% from a 13-year high in May. Reaction to the decision was swift among immigra tion lawyers and advocates who have spent months fighting with the adminis tration over a program they see as a humanitarian disas ter, subjecting hundreds of migrants to violence, kidnapping and extortion in dangerous Mexican bor der cities. Hundreds more have been living in squalid encampments just across the border, as they wait for their next court date. Advocates planned to have immigrants immediately cross the border and present the court decision to authori ties Friday, with group Human Rights First hand delivering a copy to U.S. Customs and Border Protec tion officers at a bridge con necting Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Law yers were hoping to get their clients before U.S. immigra tion court judges. The decision interrupted some court cases. Immi gration Judge Philip Law in San Diego delayed a final hearing on a Hondu ran man’s asylum case to April 17 after a government attorney couldn’t answer his questions about the effect of ruling, which temporarily halts the policy during legal challenges. The government attorney said she asked her supervisor how to address the ruling and that he didn’t know what to do either. In El Paso, an administra tor came to tell a judge of the ruling as he heard the case of a Central American mother and her partner. The couple cried when they learned they could get into the U.S. with restrictions. CEDAR ATTANASIO I Associated Press A father, in white, holds the hand of his daughter as they and other asylum seekers leave court under guard after some of them learned that they won’t have to return to Mexico in light of a major federal court ruling against the Trump administration on Friday, Feb. 28, in El Paso, Texas. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that sending asylum seekers to wait in Mexico is illegal nationwide. The couple and their two young children will be put into government detention to wait and they won’t have to return to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. “Do you guys under stand that?” Herbert asked through an interpreter. “There was a pretty signifi cant change in the law in the middle of your testimony.” The Justice Department sharply criticized the ruling, saying it “not only ignores the constitutional authority of Congress and the administra tion for a policy in effect for over a year, but also extends relief beyond the parties before the court.” Wolf, the acting Homeland Security secretary, called the decision “grave and reckless.” Judge William Fletcher, writing the majority, sided with the American Civil Lib erties Union and other advo cacy groups who argued the policy violates international treaty obligations against sending people back to a country where they are likely to be persecuted or tortured on the grounds of race, religion, ethnicity, political beliefs or member ship in a particular social group. Fletcher agreed the gov ernment set the bar too high for asylum-seekers to persuade officers that they should be exempt from the policy and didn’t provide enough time for them to pre pare for interviews or con sult lawyers. The judges said the government also erred by requiring asylum-seekers to express fear of returning to Mexico to be considered for an exemption, instead of asking them unprompted. Fletcher quoted at length asylum-seekers who reported being assaulted and victimized in Mexico, saying it was “enough — indeed, far more than enough” to undercut the gov ernment’s arguments. Fletcher was joined by Judge Richard Paez, who were both appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton. Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, dissented. “The court forcefully rejected the Trump admin istration’s assertion that it could strand asylum-seek ers in Mexico and subject them to grave danger,” ACLU attorney Judy Rabi- novitz said. “It’s time for the administration to follow the law and stop putting asylum- seekers in harm’s way.” Rabinovitz said Jus tice Department officials informed the ACLU that they will ask the Supreme Court to reinstate the policy and that the nation’s high est court could step in “very EARLY MARCH 2-20 GOOD CENTS education E-SPLOST VI AND GENERAL OBLIGATION BOND HULSEY PLUMBING SSMI®SflEf RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL f f U™ VuD" I ID I ***** PLUMBING SEPTIC WATER HEATERS DRAINS www.HulseyPlumbing.com OAKWOOD COMING SOON! soon.” Until then, she said, no one can be returned to Mexico under the policy. It was unclear when those in Mexico with pending cases may return to the U.S. but it may be when they cross for their next hearings. The appeals court in San Francisco also decided to keep another major Trump policy on hold, one that denies asylum to anyone who enters the U.S. illegally from Mexico. The Supreme Court, how ever, has allowed Trump to divert Defense Depart ment money to border wall construction, backed rules disqualifying more people from green cards if they use government benefits and upheld a travel ban affect ing several Muslim-majority countries. The ruling’s impact will also be at least partially blunted by other policies introduced in response to unprecedented surge of asylum-seeking families that peaked last year, many of them from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. US-Taliban peace agreement signing today BY MATTHEW LEE Associated Press WASHINGTON - America’s longest war may finally be nearing an end. The United States and the Islamists it toppled from power in Afghanistan are poised to sign a peace deal today after a conflict that outlasted two U.S. commanders in chief and is now led by a third eager to fulfill a campaign prom ise to extricate America from “endless wars.” More than 18 years since President George W. Bush ordered bombing in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the agree ment will set the stage for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, some of whom were not yet born when the World Trade Center col lapsed on that crisp, sunny morning that changed how Americans see the world. Today’s ceremony also signals the potential end of a tremendous investment of blood and treasure. The U.S. spent more than $750 billion, and on all sides the war cost tens of thousands of lives lost, permanently scarred and indelibly interrupted. Yet it’s also a conflict that is frequently ignored by U.S. politicians and the American public. In the Qatari capital of Doha, America’s top diplo mat will stand with leaders of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s former rulers who harbored Osama bin Laden and his al- Qaida network as they plot ted, and then celebrated, the hijackings of four airlin ers that were crashed into lower Manhattan, the Pen tagon and a field in western Pennsylvania, killing almost 3,000 people. U.S. troops are to be with drawn to 8,600 from about 13,000 in the weeks follow ing today’s signing. Further drawdowns are to depend on the Taliban meeting certain counter-terrorism conditions, compliance that will be assessed by the United States. But officials say soldiers will be coming home. Trump, as he seeks reelection this year, is looking to make good on his campaign promise to bring troops home from the Middle East. Still, he has approached the Taliban agreement cau tiously, steering clear of the crowing surrounding other major foreign policy actions, such as his talks with North Korea. Last September, on short notice, he called off what was to be a signing cer emony with the Taliban at Camp David after a series of new Taliban attacks. But he has since been supportive of the talks led by his special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad. In a statement released by the White House, Trump said Friday that if the Taliban and Afghan governments live up to the commitments in the agree ment, “we will have a pow erful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home,” “These commitments represent an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from al-Qaida, ISIS and any other terrorist group that would seek to bring us harm,” Trump said. Under the agreement, the Taliban promise not to let extremists use the country as a staging ground for attacking the U.S. or its allies. But U.S. officials are loath to trust the Taliban to fulfill their obligations. If the agreement is suc cessful, Afghanistan, the “graveyard of empires” that has repeatedly repelled foreign invaders from imperial Britain and Russia to the Soviet Union, will have once again suc cessfully turned away a world power from its land locked borders. (tippy 40fkffi/wh)eh&a/UL GjfYl&n and^bad J'hn proud to call you my Vparerfts, congratulations • ;..) *io you Jx>th.‘')/ - v ** <- Love Drew, Chad, Brody, • Ty/eC, Olivia and CJ • W* • A/ IL (Mfei.1 E . *W, Chad, i W
