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On Friday, a federal appeals court handed the Trump administration a major defeat. The court blocked the administration from sending asylum seekers from Central and South America to Mexico.
Trump’s administration has been widely condemned for their inhumane treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers. Many note their uneven application of immigration policies and the targeting of non-white immigrants, specifically.
This is a major blow to the Trump administration. Trump has heavily relied on a program of sending asylum seekers to Mexico while they await immigration hearings. The “remain in Mexico” program, which the administration put into practice in January 2019, had “enrolled” some 59,000 people as of February 2020.
Immigration across the southern border of the US has been a major point of contention during the Trump presidency. Trump has consistently railed against immigrants coming into the country from South and Central America. Much of his public popularity comes from his hardline stance on the matter.
One of the most enduring images of the Trump presidency has been that of children, separated from their parents, held in detention centers along the border. Similarly, Trump campaigned on the idea of building a border wall along the US-Mexico border. He said that, somehow, Mexico would pay for the construction of such a structure.
Three years into Trump’s presidency, it is clear that the border wall project is going to take longer than the president anticipated. And Mexico is definitely not paying for it. This remains one of Trump’s most glaring broken promises to the base that voted for him in 2016.
This week handed defeat after defeat to the beleaguered White House. The DOW has fallen to historically low levels in the face of the spreading COVID-19 coronavirus. And Trump has been roundly criticized for his lack of urgency in his administration’s response plan to the illness.
National polls still show Trump losing in a general election to Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders. Now, a major immigration initiative the administration relied on, against lawyer advice, has been stripped by an appeals court.
Judge William Fletcher, who handed down the judgment on Friday, clarified the court’s opinion.
“Plaintiffs presented evidence in the district court that they, as well as others returned to Mexico under the [program], face targeted discrimination, physical violence, sexual assault, overwhelmed and corrupt law enforcement, lack of food and shelter, and practical obstacles to participation in court proceedings in the United States.”
