2/24/20
By Josh Rubin
Let’s talk about the courts, the ones set up in tents right at the US side of the bridge.
The judges aren’t inside, they attend by videoconference. The asylum seekers enter the tents through a back way from the bridge across the the Rio, across the border. Right about the same time as we began witnessing in Brownsville, the courts started letting observers in for what are known as calendar sessions. The calendar sessions are the ones where the judges all say yes. Yes, we will schedule a date for you to try and convince a judge that you should get asylum. That ultimate session is the one where the judges say no. You might have a few more calendar sessions along the way. But the final session, called the merits session is the the one that counts.
No, there is no asylum any more, it got canceled by the administration last year on July 15.
But please do not be discouraged. The judges, we are told by those who have witnessed these calendar sessions, are often quite sympathetic. They explain things patiently. They even advise applicants for asylum about their strongest arguments. Some, I am told, even admit to the weary supplicant that they cannot ask for asylum, they are too late. But they encourage them. Come back, and tell us your sad story. Try to find a lawyer. Get your paperwork in order. Need time? Take a couple of months.
Because, you never know. If you are Cuban or Nicaraguan or Venezuelan, you might be able to get your application kicked down the road a bit. The US doesn’t like the governments of those countries, so we are more likely to find in your favor if you have a case of political persecution from one of them. It happens once in a while. You are more likely to find legal representation, too. Lawyers like to save those they can.
But if you are Guatemalan, Honduran, Salvadoran, your chances are vanishingly small. But don’t let that stop you from coming back and telling us your story of violence of rape of hunger of fear. You will tell that story without any witnesses. And we will reject you and your tears and your hopes in complete privacy.
Where the answer is always no. And you will go back across the bridge and wonder what can save you now. And how long before the Mexican INM sends you, and you family, on your way.