SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) – A non-profit group in Texas has raised $20 million to help reunite families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services is offering the government bail bond money for about 2,500 undocumented immigrant mothers who are being detained. RAICES executive director Jonathan Ryan claims the government is breaking the law by not allowing immigrants to seek asylum.
“This is the law of the United States, that you come to our borders, you come to our shores and you ask for protection,” said Ryan.
He says there’s been a lot of misinformation concerning the process, such as the suggestion that people should seek asylum at the U.S. embassies in their own countries. That includes Central American families who are trying to escape bloody gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
“It’s not legally possible. It is also a suicide if someone were to enter a U.S. embassy while in one of these countries, apply for asylum and then walk out, now marked as someone who has spoken out and who has sought asylum,” said Ryan.
However, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions cites a major increase in the number of U.S. asylum claims, and he says many fail to show up for their hearings after being released.
In a speech last fall, he said the asylum system is “being gamed.” Sessions said it’s become an “easy ticket” to illegal entry into this country.
RAICES offered $20 million in bail bond money Tuesday after the Trump administration failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to reunite all of the undocumented immigrant children under five years of age who have been separated from their mothers at the border. Fifty-four of the 102 children under the age of 5 were reunited with their mothers by the Tuesday deadline.
“If the government cannot reunite just these 102 children, it’s inconceivable that they will reunite the nearly 2,900 by the end of the month as ordered by the court,” said Congressman Joaquin Castro. “We will continue holding the administration accountable until we know every last one of these children has been reunited with their parents,” said Castro.
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