Community-based programs offer a true alternative for asylum-seekers

Photo caption: A migrant woman holds her daughter while waiting to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the U.S. – Mexico border in Penitas, Texas on July 8, 2021. Photo credit: Paul Ratje / AFP via Getty Images. Article by Maurizio Guerrero. Prism – December 13, 2022.

Warning: This article contains descriptions of violence and mentions of suicide.

Community-based programs for immigrants and asylum-seekers remain grossly underfunded despite a desperate need for their services, especially as the U.S. government drags its feet on implementing any such program on the federal level. In 2017, the Trump administration shut down the Family Case Management Program, despite over 99% of the asylum-seekers complying with their immigration hearings and appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, costing a fraction of detention. So far, the Biden administration has floated a new case management pilot program (CMPP) for which Congress has appropriated funds, but the program has not yet taken off the ground. […]

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