Thousands of Drug War Victims Seek Asylum in the US
quicklist: curated
quote: “More than 90 percent of Mexican asylum requests are denied by immigration judges who must adhere to a strict legal standard in a process that may drag out for months and years.”
their: New York Daily News’
their_title: Fleeing wrath of vicious cartels, record-breaking numbers of Mexicans seek political asylum in the U.S.
their_url: http://www.nydailynews.com
their_copy: Mexicans are running from drug cartel horrors and seeking asylum in skyrocketing numbers. Refugees tell the Daily News they ran for their lives for chance at safety in the U.S., where more than 23,000 Mexicans fled in the first nine months of 2013.
theirCTA: Read the full story here
our_copy: This comprehensive article by the New York Daily News, does a good job at explaining why increasing amounts of Mexicans are seeking asylum in the U.S.
Basically, it is because the Mexican government has been unable to protect many citizens from organized crime groups who are no longer just dealing drugs.
As the Daily News points out, civilian in several parts of Mexico are now threatened by cartels who demand tax payments, from all sorts of businesses.
Those who can’t pay up or refuse to do so, are kidnapped or tortured, like Carlos Gutierrez of Chihuahua state, who had his feet chopped off in a public plaza.
It’s not surprising that many Mexicans would want to escape this sort of barbarity. But it’s hard for drug war victims to get asylum in the U.S. because they don’t exactly fit into any of the existing categories that would make them eligible.
As the Daily News point out:
“Applicants must show credible fear of persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality or membership in a social group.”
Cartels in Mexico do not usually go after people because they belong to a certain religion a certain race or a specific social group, but simply because they refuse to make ransom payments. This makes it difficult for many cartel victims to get asylum in the U.S.
Manuel Rueda is a correspondent for Fusion, covering Mexico and South America. He travels from donkey festivals, to salsa clubs to steamy places with cartel activity.