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Last week, the advocacy group Human Rights First detailed how it has found more than 600 publicly reported cases of kidnapping, rape, torture, assault, and other violent attacks against asylum-seekers and immigrants returned to Mexico under MPP. The group also found asylum-seekers who had missed court dates in the US due to being kidnapped in Mexico.
The situation in shelters, like the one Francisco has been forced to remain in, has also been dire, the group found. Cartel members in Nuevo Laredo had robbed, extorted, and repeatedly threatened immigrants outside shelters in the town.
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“The shelters Human Rights First visited in Nuevo Laredo in November had no government-provided security. Asylum-seekers we spoke to were terrified — one shelter we visited had been attacked weeks earlier by a cartel who broke in, threatening the dozens of families staying there,” said Kennji Kizuka, a senior researcher at Human Rights First.
Francisco is one of the rare immigrants thrust into MPP to be granted asylum. In the temporary court in Laredo, most cases are still pending, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
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