The Asylum Trap

KERA
10/05/2020

Tens of thousands of asylum seekers are currently stuck in Mexican border cities like Ciudad Juárez, waiting for their day in U.S. immigration court. They were sent there under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, formally called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). When COVID-19 struck, their asylum hearings were postponed indefinitely. Many have been living in dangerous, squalid conditions for more than a year. Now, in the middle of a global pandemic and a dramatic U.S. political transition, they are trapped in legal limbo. Stranded in shelters and camps along the border, they feel they have been forgotten.

The Trump administration’s family separation policy on the border led to a national outcry, but “Remain in Mexico” has not received the same level of attention and outrage, despite claims from advocates on the ground that the policy is even more damaging.

“I never thought anything could be worse than family separation,” immigration attorney Taylor Levy told KERA News. “But MPP is worse.” The U.S. government created a situation so dire that some parents decided to send their children across the border without them, knowing they may never see each other again — what Levy calls “Family Separation 2.0.”

In “The Asylum Trap,” a five-part multimedia investigative series, KERA’s El Paso-based reporter Mallory Falk traveled across the state to tell the stories of families who have been waiting in Juárez for a year or more. Audiences on radio and digital platforms hear wrenching stories from a couple who are trying to shield their 9-year-old son from the reality of the situation (“We tell him that we’re traveling around the world like tourists, getting to know new people and places”); a mother who, in a city where migrants are often the targets of violence, hasn’t taken her children to the park in more than a year out of concern for their safety; and a father who is considering sending his two young daughters across the border alone. Listeners in North Texas on KERA radio and across the state on the newsmagazine Texas Standard learn how the pandemic has exacerbated an already untenable situation, and how families fight to create moments of joy and levity in the face of so much uncertainty.

“The Asylum Trap” is textbook accountability journalism that brought renewed attention to one of the Trump administration’s most consequential immigration policies. The five radio stories, two videos, photography and compelling digital presentation offered an in-depth, human perspective on the “Remain in Mexico” issue. The project was released at the very moment the fate of the policy was being considered, both at the U.S. polls and in the nation’s highest court. The series aired the same week the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would review the policy’s legality, and a few weeks before the U.S. presidential election that ended with the new president, Joe Biden, suspending the program — although so far at least, these families are still in limbo.

In addition to airing on KERA radio, “The Asylum Trap” was showcased on Texas Standard, a daily newsmagazine broadcast on 30 NPR member stations across Texas, with a daily audience of 63,000 listeners. The Texas Standard podcast is downloaded 3,500 a day.

Readers committed unusual amounts of time digging into the series on the KERA News website. Each post averaged three to four minutes per pageview; a typical story averages less than a minute. Texas Public Radio also translated the main digital story into Spanish, expanding its reach to the very audience most affected by the policy.

By sending asylum seekers across the border, into another country, the Trump administration attempted to place these migrants out of sight and out of mind. “The Asylum Trap” centered their voices and made their stories visible to the American public.

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Submitted by Mallory Falk.