Immigrant rights advocates have decried the plan, arguing that it will force U.S. asylum seekers to live in dangerous border zones, often at the mercy of drug cartels. So far, many of the migrants have been forced to sleep at makeshift refugee camps at sports arenas or along border-city sidewalks. That’s an atrocious way to treat people who are exercising a legal right to petition for help. It’s reasonable to detain asylum seekers long enough to ascertain whether they can mount a credible argument that they face persecution, that they are indeed who they say they are, and that they do not have criminal backgrounds or other baggage that would make them ineligible to live legally in the U.S. But in the process, asylum seekers should be treated humanely and with dignity, and not consigned to dangerous conditions while the U.S. government slowly decides their fate.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times