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ASYLUM SEEKERS TURNED AWAY AT THE MEXICAN BORDER
According to ProBAR, the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, a recent change by the INS in the treatment of people appearing at the Mexican border seeking asylum violates both the U.N. Convention on Refugees and the Immigration and Nationality Act. 
The required INS practice is to put all asylum seekers into expedited removal proceedings when they arrive, as if they arrived seeking admission without proper documentation. Once in proceedings, if they express a fear of return to their home country or a desire to seek asylum, they receive a credible fear interview with an asylum officer. If the asylum seeker establishes credible fear, he gets a hearing before an Immigration Judge.
According to ProBAR, there is a new policy of giving asylum seekers an asylum application to fill out and sending them back to Mexico. After they come across the border for the asylum interview, they are again sent back to Mexico pending the decision. Because the asylum seekers are not Mexican, are often illegally in Mexico, and because Mexico does not recognize the international right to seek asylum, they face apprehension and deportation by Mexican authorities while they wait. Their plight is made more difficult because they must provide their own interpreter and must fill out a form in English; they seldom speak Spanish. Furthermore, these are refugees and do not have an address or telephone number where the INS can reach them when it make its decision. 
So far, it seems that only a few people have been subjected to the new policy, and there has been no official announcement of a change by the INS. Nevertheless, evidence that this is now the INS’ practice will no doubt draw considerable criticism.