Goshen attorneys travel to southern border to counsel women seeking asylum

“People seeking asylum in America generally don’t speak English, don’t have money, and don’t want to leave their homes, whether it’s in Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras,” said attorney Honey Bernstein, a former Goshen resident and former town supervisor. "But they’re trekking an unreasonable number of miles and enduring hardship to get here because they’re fleeing violence and feel they have no choice."

Bernstein and Goshen attorney Barbara Strauss last year traveled to Dilley, Texas, with an organization called Lawyers for Good Government to counsel women seeking asylum in the United States. This was Bernstein’s second trip to the southern border to aid immigrants.

“The biggest misconception is that people are sneaking across the border," Bernstein said. "Most do it the legal way. They present themselves to border agents at ports of entry and formally request asylum. But without knowing the language, it’s difficult for them to advocate for themselves and prove their case."

Strauss said Lawyers for Good Government "started mobilizing volunteer attorneys who wanted to help with the original Muslim ban. Thereafter, when children started being separated from their mothers, Honey called me and said a pro bono project in Dilley was being formed. Would I want to go? I said ‘yes’ and signed up to go with her in December.”

12-hour days

Goshen resident Rose Shevchuk and Strauss’s high school friend Victoria Gonzales Ingber, with whom she reconnected on Facebook, both said “yes” to going as interpreters. They were included in a group of 20 lawyers, interpreters, and social workers who went for one week.

Training for the project included viewing an online video a week before heading to Dilley and a four-hour training session on the first day once they were there. Strict rules, imposed by the private company running the detention facility, included no hugging the refugees and no picture taking.

From New York, the women flew to San Antonio, Texas, and then drove to the small town of Dilley, about an hour away, where they stayed at a Day’s Inn for the week. Training took place in the hotel conference room led by a staff of young lawyers who worked for the nonprofit.

Each day for Strauss and Bernstein began at 7:15 a.m. and ended 12 hours later.

“Over one hundred adults per week come in seeking asylum," said Strauss. "Our job was to meet with as many as we could in a day to prepare them for an asylum interview."

A refugee’s story begins long before coming to Dilley.

“Many of these women, most with children, marched 1,400 miles through hell from Honduras, Guatemala, or El Salvador and had to remain in Mexico before entering the U.S.,” said Bernstein. “It was a long, miserable trip, often traveling with babies. They used small boats to reach the U.S. border. Once on American soil they surrendered themselves, and were then housed in what’s referred to as the 'refrigerator-processing center' because the temperature is kept at a constant 62 degrees."

After the initial processing, the refugees are then moved to the “dog kennel,” the cages where parents are often separated from their children. Living in these overcrowded conditions, sleeping on the floor with only a foil blanket to cover them, many refugees become ill. Many are them are coughing, with runny noses, but are given minimal health care. Sickness spreads quickly.

Bernstein said not one refugee died during the Obama administration. To date, however, there have been 30 deaths under President Trump.

The refugees are eventually moved to detention facilities around the country, like Dilley. Strauss said this private facility apparently provides better and more respectful care than other facilities.

'A well-founded fear'

Bernstein said that once refugees present themselves at the border and request asylum, the Constitution requires that they be given due process to prove their case.

"Our job was to help prepare them for the first hurdle in the very long process to gain legal status, which is an interview with the front line judge who will determine whether their fear of violence was ‘credible,’ a necessary element for asylum," she said.

To be successful in a credible fear interview, an asylum seeker must meet all elements of the law and prove “a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” All asylum cases must be requested in a country other than the country of origin of the person seeking asylum. In other words, refugees can only seek safety from the United States outside of their home countries.

Strauss and Bernstein used interpreters to conduct all of their client interviews and needed to elicit the details of the violence and oppression. Could the client have found safety in another region of the home country? Were the police alerted? If so, what, if anything, did they do?

Having the opportunity to talk with a lawyer in advance helps refugees focus on the strength or weakness of their statements, said Bernstein.

If the immigration judge determines there is a credible fear of violence if the asylum seeker is deported, he or she is given temporary asylum status and is released to “sponsors” -- generally family or friends -- around the country. A court date is given, and the asylum seeker must appear to argue for permanent legal status. Negative determinations by the judge result in immediate deportation.

Where gangs are king

All the women counseled by the attorneys in Dilley were from the “Northern Triangle,” that is, Guatemala, El Salvador, or Honduras, the most violent region in the world that is not at war, Bernstein said.

Gangs in these countries are king. They use violent tactics to extort money from all residents lucky enough to have jobs or businesses. They force young girls into sexual slavery and enlist pre-teen male recruits, all at will. There is virtually no functioning police force or other law enforcement agency that is not corrupt or working with the gangs.

“Gang members don’t want their countrymen leaving the homeland because the result is a loss of income," Bernstein said. "Therefore, those who are returned by the United States to their country of origin are often killed or maimed as punishment and as a warning to others."

“The women I saw risked everything," she said. "They left the comfort of their homes, their culture, their friends and family, and ran, often in the middle of the night, with their young children, looking for safety. Most of them would have preferred to stay, but a credible fear of violence directed against them or their children forced them to abandon everything they know."

In the evening, following grueling 12-hour days counseling the asylum seekers, attorneys would spend another three to five hours entering information about each client into a central database so that the next attorney picking up the matter would have the information needed to handle the case at its next stage.

“I was really glad to go to Dilley and help the women," said Strauss. "I’m not an immigrant lawyer, but I appreciate what they do and what I was able to do with the training that I received. No matter your political background, it’s always good to help individuals who need an attorney. The U.S. has always been a refuge for people who needed it. This was a great way to volunteer our help.”