Jeff Sessions to asylum seekers: Go to the ports, but at the border that's no easy task

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is telling asylum-seekers to present their claims at the ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border to avoid prosecution under his "zero-tolerance" crackdown on illegal entries.

But Sessions seems to be underplaying the challenges that are now playing out along the border, where numerous advocacy groups have reported lengthy delays for processing and have even documented instances of customs officers turning away people at the ports.

The "zero-tolerance" policy has resulted in nearly 2,000 family separations in six weeks, and has faced heavy criticism from migrant advocates, Democrats, and, increasingly, some Republicans.

On Monday, Sessions defended the policy. He told sheriffs gathered in New Orleans that it was put in place to prosecute "adults who flaunt our laws" by crossing the border illegally, rather than "waiting their turn" or going through the border crossings.

"They can go to our ports of entry, if they want to claim asylum. And they won’t be arrested," Sessions said.

It's not so simple, migrant advocates said.

"We have seen an active effort to deter asylum seekers legally crossing the border to get to the inspection where they can actually petition for asylum or refugee status,” said Fernando Garcia, the executive director and founder of the Border Network for Human Rights. His group has documented many cases over the past few weeks of asylum seekers turned away from border crossings linking El Paso to Ciudad Juarez.

Over the past week, media reports have also revealed U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers doing the same along other parts of the Texas border, from El Paso to Brownsville. Officers stand in the middle of the international bridges crossing the Rio Grande, turning away asylum-seekers.

The situation is not much easier for migrants attempting to seek asylum at the ports of entry in the other border states. 

Lengthy waits at the ports

Since April, dozens of men, women and children, some as young as just a few months old, began arriving to Nogales' DeConcini port of entry to seek asylum. There were no bridges or agents to turn them away.

Much like the controversial caravan to Tijuana a few weeks earlier, they were immediately met with long wait times of up to five days to meet with an immigration officer to present their claim.

“The situation is getting worse here in Nogales," Joanna Williams said. "Now we’re at 12 to 13 days of waiting.”

Williams is the advocacy director for the Kino Border Initiative, a faith-based group that helps northbound and deported migrants in the area. With a limited response from the Mexican government, the initiative — along with other community groups — stepped in to coordinate food, legal aid, and shelter from the sweltering desert temperatures. The advocates even created a number system to keep order among the families.

In response to these situations, Customs and Border Protection has said it has insufficient space and services, but that the agency is working "as expeditiously" as possible to process everyone.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen addressed those delays during her tour on May 31 of Nogales' DeConcini port of entry. She saw up close, from the U.S. side of the crossing's turnstiles, the long lines of families camped out on the floor in Mexico.

"The lines are a reflection of strained resources," Nielsen said in a press conference after her tour. "So we will work through in a prioritized way, based on our mission set what we can, to process as quickly, as expeditiously, professionally and with respect as we can. But we do have limited resources." 

Williams said when the families first began arriving, she gave Customs and Border Protection the benefit of the doubt about the delays.

But on any given day, they process an average of about three families, she added, and frustration is setting in.

"We’re really starting to question, until what extent is it capacity? And we haven’t gotten a clear justification for this capacity claim," Williams said.

Asylum seekers in a no-win situation

With the "zero-tolerance" policy in place, high-ranking U.S. government officials, including Sessions, have said that migrants presenting their asylum claims at ports of entry would not be prosecuted.

It remains unclear whether the government will provide additional resources to help process those claims. Neither Customs and Border Protection nor the Department of Homeland Security has responded to requests for comment.

Nevertheless, Garcia and Williams said the long delays at the ports of entry could exacerbate illegal crossings border-wide, which could result in additional prosecutions and family separations.

"The biggest (obstacle) is the unknown," Williams said. "Right now, your wait is 12 days, but who knows what the wait will be by the time 12 days has passed."

That not only discourages recent arrivals to the border — who might opt to press their luck and try to cross illegally — but also those already in line, she added. Large numbers of asylum-seekers sitting idle at the border creates a vulnerable population that smugglers could easily exploit.

Tracking those situations would be difficult. The government doesn't keep data on migrant whereabouts before they are detained, so it would be difficult to know how many of them first tried to seek asylum through the ports.

Nonetheless, a "zero-tolerance" policy at the border, paired with restricted access to the ports, has left asylum seekers in a no-win situation.

"They are not only separating families with children in detention, when they cross between the ports of entry. Now they are intentionally dissuading people to come legally," Garcia said. "So people will continue trying to cross, one way or another."

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