Immigration Legal Assistance for Asylum Seekers

There are currently 10,000 people seeking asylum in the United States who are stuck in Tijuana as part of the Trump Administration's new "Remain in Mexico" policy, which forces people fleeing persecution in their home countries to wait at the border for months until they are finally permitted to cross and begin the asylum process. These are people who have experienced extreme violence, who have traveled long distances seeking refuge, and are then denied entry. Many have nothing left. Just this week, the Supreme Court decided that the U.S. government "may enforce new rules that generally forbid asylum applications from migrants who have traveled through another country on their way to the United States without being denied asylum in that country." Justice Sotomayor, dissenting, wrote that the decision "topples decades of settled asylum practices and affects some of the most vulnerable people in the Western Hemisphere."

I will be taking a week of vacation from work at Bay Area Legal Aid and volunteering with Al Otro Lado's Border Rights Project in Tijuana. I am raising funds to cover my travel and lodging expenses for the week. Any additional funds raised will be donated directly to Al Otro Lado.

Al Otro Lado is a bi-national legal services organization serving migrants and deportees at the US-México border. The Border Rights Project is one of their pillar projects that has been focused on addressing the “self-manufactured humanitarian crisis” at the border. The project has been conducting legal observation at the ports of entry, know your rights presentations, and legal screenings throughout the many shelters in Tijuana for several years. For many years, they have documented human rights violations committed against asylum seekers at the port-of-entry and inside immigration detention. Al Otro Lado's three directors have been placed on a government watchlist and had holds placed on their passports so that they could not travel to Mexico and do their jobs. I will be helping migrants learn about their rights and preparing them for their Credible Fear Interviews, an important step in the asylum process.

Thank you for anything you can contribute!

With gratitude and in solidarity,
Juliana