in part to a new policy that severely limits asylum for people who travel through another country, like Mexico, to reach the U.S. border.
The administration won't say how many of the screenings it has done at Border Patrol facilities, which prohibit in-person attorney visits, though it is easily thousands. The Homeland Security Department said June 5 that asylum officers did more than 11,500 screenings on the border in the first three weeks after, though some may have been at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers, which do allow attorney visits.
Renewed screenings began in Texas' Rio Grande Valley and expanded the following week to similarly sprawling tent complexes in Laredo and El Paso in Texas; Yuma, Arizona; and San Diego — all temporary Border Patrol detention centers built since 2021 with hundreds of phone booths for interviews. Americans for Immigrant Justice joined the Jones Day-led effort because the interviews carry “life-and death" stakes, said Cindy Woods, national policy counsel.
Obtaining formal representation for the screening may require a signature, which requires assistance from agents who may be unavailable. One of Woods' clients was on the phone for five hours while waiting for an agent to print a consent form and fax it back to the attorney with the migrant's signature.