Protect Asylum Today
Every day, all over the world, people make one of the most difficult decisions in their lives: to leave their homes in search of a safer, better life. All too often, these migrants are fleeing dangers in their home country and seeking asylum abroad. President-Elect Donald Trump has vowed to continue to erode the rights of asylum seekers and turn them away from the United States during their hour of need.
ICS supports the right to asylum because it is founded in U.S. and international law—and because we see its importance to clients like Jessica*. Jessica and her three boys fled their home, a small village in Guatemala, and traveled more than 1,000 dangerous miles to seek asylum in the United States and eventually became ICS clients.
But what could make someone run for so long and so far, facing an uncertain future? Local cartels and transnational criminal organizations controlled the area where Jessica’s family was living; these groups extorted Jessica’s husband and threatened their sons with recruitment into gangs. When they refused, Jessica’s husband was killed, and the threats did not stop.
Despite her legal right to seek asylum, Jessica was turned away at the border to await an asylum hearing. Jessica was subsequently kidnapped at the border, assaulted, and separated from one of her children. When she was finally admitted into the United States, she had to wear an ankle monitor for two more years before she could even tell her story before a judge.
ICS guided Jessica throughout her asylum case, helped reunite her family, and secured work authorization so she could find a stable job, home, and education for her children.
Like Jessica’s family, thousands of people across Central America have fled extreme danger—murder, kidnapping, violence against women and children, and forced recruitment by gangs. Those arriving at the U.S. border are often depicted as “illegal” immigrants.
Today, the right to asylum in the United States remains under threat as the Trump Administration work to block asylum for the vast majority of people who come to our southern border seeking protection. ICS continues to advocate for the rights of all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and remains committed to ensuring our government honors its responsibility to protect the rights of vulnerable migrants.
*Note: Names and details in this story have been altered to protect the client’s identity.