Here in the US, the pandemic has brought a lot of things to a halt.

The open air office, the luxury apparel market, a maskless doctor's appointment.

One thing it hasn't stopped is the flow of people seeking asylum here.

People are still showing up at the border hoping to escape brutal conditions in their home

countries.

The US government is supposed to hear these people out.

What's supposed to happen is people are supposed to have their day in court.

That's Adorfo Flores.

He covers immigration policy for BuzzFeed news.

He says agreements that the United States has signed and supported promise that people

asking for asylum be interviewed and ask why they fear returning to their home country.

It's an international obligation and it's also part of our federal law that people have

access to this legal system that we have.

But that's not happening right now.

The Trump administration says the pandemic makes it impossible to give asylum seekers a hearing.

Back in March, the CDC said undocumented immigrants could no longer be safely detained

at the border while they awaited processing.

Immigrants and asylum seekers, when they show up at the border and say present themselves

to a border patrol agent, they are quickly sent back to Mexico in less than two hours without

any access to our immigration court system.

People who are showing up at the border saying, I'm fleeing my country, I'm asking for asylum.

They are simply dropped over on the other side of the border.

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