ACLU Supporter –

I just got back from Mexico, where I witnessed the humanitarian crisis afflicting tens of thousands of people our country has shut out as part of Trump's all-out war on the asylum system.

Right now, vulnerable people are trapped in dangerous, cartel-controlled territory with no clear way out due to new policies forcing asylum seekers to return to Mexico or trapping them in long waits before they can make a claim. I want to share with you some of the stories I heard travelling through Ciudad Juarez and Matamoros earlier this month.

• After Customs and Border Protection turned away a 21-year-old pregnant Honduran mother, she was raising her five-day-old baby in a tent in Matamoros in cold, unsanitary conditions that could threaten the newborn's life. She said that a CBP officer had told her she should get an abortion before sending her back to Mexico.
• On the banks of the Rio Grande, a cluster of crosses mark the deaths of children who have died by drowning in the river in recent months.
• One parent told us she'd had to wrestle with a man who tried to abduct her daughter in front of her.
• While I was at a shelter in Juarez, one family received a text from assailants who'd kidnapped their son and were demanding ransom.

These are just a few stories amid a vast crisis. Conditions are dire across the board – flooded, muddy tent camps. Insecure shelters under observation by criminals. People sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on the floors of warehouses. Others sleeping on the streets while safety across the border is literally in sight, but legally out of reach.

Read more about what asylum seekers are going through in my new report from Mexico.

The ACLU has filed suit against every anti-asylum policy Trump has tried to implement, but the courts have allowed several to go forward for now while litigation continues. We'll keep you updated on how best to fight back – including holding the administration accountable for its war on asylum seekers.

Our identity as a country is at stake. What kind of country do we want to be? There are tens of thousands of eyes cast towards us at the border right now waiting for our answer.

Thanks for reading,

Ashoka Mukpo
ACLU Staff Reporter