From the ACLU, this is at Liberty.

I'm Emerson Sykes, a staff attorney here at the ACLU and your host.

Just across the southern border in Mexico, tens of thousands of asylum seekers are stranded

in squalid and dangerous conditions.

They're seeking refuge in the United States, but the U.S. government won't let them in.

That's because of a Trump administration policy, widely known as Remain in Mexico,

which forces the vast majority of asylum seekers coming through the southern border

to wait in Mexico while the U.S. considers their cases. The Remain in Mexico policy is one of many

new anti-immigrant measures designed to close America's doors to people fleeing persecution.

Its human impact has been staggering. Shelters in Mexican border cities are overwhelmed, and many asylum seekers are homeless.

According to human rights groups, scores of asylum seekers have been kidnapped, extorted,

and sexually abused at the hands of cartels and criminal gangs.

For many, access to the asylum system and the U.S. side of the border is out of reach.

We're joined today by Ashoka Mukpo, a journalist working at the ACLU. He recently traveled to Ciudad Juarez and Matamoros on the Mexican side of the border to get a sense of what life is like for the asylum seekers stranded there. We'll also hear from Astrid Dominguez, director of the ACLU's border rights center about the broader fight for

immigrants' rights. We'll start with Ashoka, who's with me in studio. A quick note for listeners.

Getting in the spirit of the Halloween season, you might hear some creaking in the background. It's

just our 40-story building swaying in the wind. Ashoka, thanks very much for joining us. Welcome to

the podcast. Thanks for having me. So for joining us. Welcome to the podcast.

Thanks for having me.

So you were reporting from Mexico last week for the ACLU.

Tell us what you were doing there.

So we thought that it was important to go to Mexico to actually speak to some of the asylum

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