Ted Lieu Wants DHS to Investigate Claims of Asylum-Seekers Being Turned Away

Congressman Ted Lieu (D-CA) wants an investigation into reports that asylum-seekers are being turned away at the border. Lieu on Friday led 51 colleagues in a letter calling for Department of Homeland Security Inspector General John Kelly to open an investigation regarding reports that asylum-seekers are being turned away at the U.S.-Mexico border before being referred to an asylum officer. In the letter, they also expressed dismay at Trump administration policies that could compel families to choose between pursuing legal asylum claims or being reunited and then deported. “We urge you to immediately open an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security’s potentially illegal treatment of asylum seekers at the southwest border, including the denial of access to asylum procedures, the pressure to recant fears of return and the implementation of a policy that incentivizes asylum seekers to forfeit their claims in order to be reunited with their children,” the letter reads. Read the letter here.