Originally Posted by
eschatological
There's all sorts of NGOs that deal with this sort of thing, especially along the border, but I mainly work with the ACLU. Human Rights First is pretty good as well.
Immigration law is kind of stacked against immigrants in this country though. Even though law is on our side (asylum seeking is a right guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which we are a party to, as well as ICCPR and the '67 protocol on refugees), and the law of the Constitution supposedly applies to anyone legally within our borders (which asylum seekers are), the courts that review this are not part of the Judicial branch of government.
In fact, the EOIR (Executive Office of Immigration Review) is, as you might be able to tell from its title, is entirely under the Executive branch, and EOIR/BIA (Board of Immigration Appeals) goes as the Executive goes. It is, like DAs who kowtow to police forces that they work closely with, a rubber stamp for most ICE/Homeland actions. Technically, you can appeal from the BIA to the Circuit Court of Appeals, but almost none of those cases were ever deemed serious enough to be heard en banc, and usually were highly deferential to the BIA rulings, as long as you toed a certain line. IE, until the Trump administration started flouting it, none of these cases went anywhere.
One of the things EOIR/BIA loves to do is differentiate on one of the "loopholes" of asylum status. To have a successful claim for asylum, you have to show that the persecution you face is "inescapable" if you were to stay in your own country. In the U.S., we've decided that means the persecution has to come from your government - which is why Cubans get asylum very easily. But if you're from El Salvador, and MS-13 has killed your family and runs your town, the U.S. will very much deny your asylum based on the fact that "the police can protect you, the government can protect you" from MS-13, even if those institutions are wholly corrupted by gangs. The same goes for the cartels in South America. Because they hold no official government power, the U.S. denies asylum to the people persecuted by the cartels, even these organization, in practical fact, do control their local governance.
It's a frustrating field to work in, to say the least.
As for what this article is about - this is a gross violation of human rights, and should be referred to appropriate authorities as a crime against humanity.