zReportage.com Story of the Week #751: TUESDAY September 1, 2020: ASYLUM LOTTERY by ZUMA Press Newspaper San Diego Union Tribune photographer Nelvin C. Cepeda together with reporters Kate Morrissey and Lauryn Schroeder worked together multi-part series that explores the asylum system and whether it is working the way it was intended. The administration has already remade much of the asylum system, claiming it is rife with abuse and overwhelmed with undeserving claims. Its policies include making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico while their claims are heard in U.S. court and denying asylum to anyone on the Mexican border who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. without first seeking protection there. An asylum seeker's chances at protection hinge on numerous factors that often seem arbitrary, from location to nationality to individual judge assigned, according to a Union-Tribune analysis of immigration court records. For the world's most vulnerable, protection in the United States has all but disappeared. Welcome to: ASYLUM LOTTERY
© zReportage.com Story Summary: zReportage.com Story of the Week #751: TUESDAY September 1, 2020: ASYLUM LOTTERY by ZUMA Press Newspaper San Diego Union Tribune photographer Nelvin C. Cepeda together with reporters Kate Morrissey and Lauryn Schroeder worked together multi-part series that explores the asylum system and whether it is working the way it was intended. The administration has already remade much of the asylum system, claiming it is rife with abuse and overwhelmed with undeserving claims. Its policies include making asylum-seekers wait in Mexico while their claims are heard in U.S. court and denying asylum to anyone on the Mexican border who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. without first seeking protection there. An asylum seeker's chances at protection hinge on numerous factors that often seem arbitrary, from location to nationality to individual judge assigned, according to a Union-Tribune analysis of immigration court records. For the world's most vulnerable, protection in the United States has all but disappeared. Welcome to: ASYLUM LOTTERY
JIMMY ANTONIO RAMIREZ from Honduras wakes up early Sunday morning before the start of the groups daily border protest. Ramirez is part of the Central American migrant group that recently arrived in Tijuana.
© Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune via ZUMA Wire
Inside her one-bedroom apartment, BARBARA, a Nicaraguan citizen puts on her makeup before heading to work in Tijuana. Barbara was selected for the U.S. Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) known widely as 'Remain in Mexico' is living in Tijuana waiting for her asylum case to be heard in U.S. Immigration Court.
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A night view of the the Otay Mesa Detention Center, located in south San Diego, where immigrant detainees awaiting court proceedings are housed.
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United States Marines deployed to the U.S. Mexico border in San Diego work to fortify the border wall with concertina wire at the Otay Mesa Port of entry.
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In Tijuana, a group of migrants gather everyday in the early morning hoping that their number will be called so they can begin the asylum application process for entering the U.S.
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U.S. Border Patrol officers deploy CS gas on migrants refusing to step away from the Concertina wire set up along the U.S. Mexico border near San Ysidro.
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With hands clasped, Rev. BONNIE TARWATER, from the Church for our Common Home, and more than 300 faith and community leaders took part in a protest at Border Field State Park over the treatment of the migrants in Tijuana.
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Men and women take a brief break to bathe in the river in Tapachula, Chiapas state. The group were among those that illegally crossed into Mexico from Guatemala and heading to north Mexico at the U.S. border.
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A family huddles on the street across from the temporary shelter at Benito Juarez. The shelter is where the majority of the migrants from the Central American caravan are sheltered in Tijuana.
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With entry lanes remaining open for entry into the U.S., agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection dressed in riot gear stage drills at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego.
© Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune via ZUMA Wire
In the early morning at El Chaparral in Tijuana, hundreds wait as a few numbers are called to go to the U.S. border to meet with U.S. immigration officials. Under the new rule, which is set to take effect today, migrants arriving at U.S. territory on the southwest border would be ineligible to apply for asylum if they had failed to file for safe haven in another country en route to the United States.
© Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune via ZUMA Wire
Located in South San Diego, the Otay Mesa Detention Center where immigrant detainees awaiting court proceedings are housed. Asylum seekers who are detained are ordered deported at higher rates than those who are allowed to wait for their cases out of custody.
© Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune via ZUMA Wire
Detainees move about one of the secure area of the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
© Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune via ZUMA Wire
