Session's New Rules Mean Asylum Seekers Could Be Sent Back to Die

"Denisa fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the government cracked down on her for speaking out against the ruling party. Police arrested and tortured her family and beat her up, and officials threatened them all with death. So the 35-year-old flew with her brother and sister to Central America and journeyed north to the US border, where they turned themselves into immigration agents to request asylum. Since the US government routinely detains asylum seekers—and has increasingly done so under the Trump administration—the agents sent Denisa to Texas’s T. Don Hutto detention center, where she passed her first phase in the asylum process and remains while fighting her case.

But now Denisa, whose real name has been withheld since she is afraid of retaliation, is on the verge of being sent back to the DRC, despite the likely danger she'll face there. She has been threatened twice with deportation in the past six weeks, all because the immigration judge hearing her case thought she filled out paperwork inadequately..."

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