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US to Open Tent Courts on Border for Asylum-Seekers

Associated Press

   EL PASO, TEXAS - The Trump administration is ready to open a tent court
   on the border to help handle tens of thousands of cases of
   asylum-seekers forced to wait in Mexico, with hearings held entirely by
   videoconference.

   The court, or "soft-sided" facility as U.S. officials call it, is
   scheduled to begin operations Monday in Laredo, Texas. Another is
   expected to open soon in Brownsville in the Rio Grande Valley, the
   busiest corridor for illegal crossings.

   The administration introduced its "Remain in Mexico" policy in San
   Diego in January and later expanded it to El Paso, but hearings there
   are conducted inside large buildings with normal courtrooms, and the
   judge usually appears in person.

   The policy, assailed by critics for making families and young children
   wait in violent Mexico border cities, has become a key piece of the
   U.S. response to a large increase in asylum-seeking families,
   especially from Central America.

   Mexico allowed for its rapid expansion in a June 7 pact that spared it,
   at least temporarily, from threats of tariff increases by President
   Donald Trump.

   Expanding the policy

   Mexico's Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard and U.S. Vice
   President Mike Pence agreed Tuesday to expand the policy "to the
   fullest extent possible," according to a summary of their meeting
   provided by the White House.

   About 40,000 non-Mexican asylum-seekers have been forced to wait in
   Mexico while their cases wind through clogged U.S. immigration courts,
   according to the Mexican government. The number soared after the June
   agreement between the U.S. and Mexico, and the policy was expanded to
   Laredo and Brownsville.

   The Laredo court will manage as many as 300 cases a day, said Alberto
   Flores, port director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said
   during a tour for journalists on Tuesday that was streamed by reporter
   Brenda Camacho of KGNS-TV.

   Asylum-seekers have been told to report to Nuevo Laredo on the Mexico
   side of the border at least four hours before their court times, Flores
   said during a media tour of the 30,000-square foot (2,787-square-meter)
   facility.

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