More Questions, Less Answers

Ramos, Photo via Linkedin

Guest post by Anna Fullerton, rising 2L at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law

I will never forget Honors Chemistry at 8 am with Professor Powell. This freshmen course led me to abandon my pipe dream of entering the medical field. I quickly realized that discovering cures for strange diseases and saving mankind would be made even more challenging by my inability to conceptualize things that cannot be physically touched, like atoms and infinite numbers. I channeled my energies into topics that made more sense to me, like psychology and human interaction and now law – intangible topics with no clear or “right” answers. In recent years, though, I have found increasing comfort in the unalterable, definiteness of science and math. People may not understand the result of a particular quadratic equation, but that does not change the fact that there is a discernable answer.

I have been thinking about this as we have met with immigration and border enforcement officials this week. As inquiring (and perhaps over-zealous) law students, we did not waste the opportunity to ask the “tough” questions. We wanted to know who border patrol is really stopping at our borders, what ICE had to say about the reported deaths in their detention centers, and what to make of the videos and reports of CBP turning away asylum seekers at the border. Then Friday, we had the opportunity to speak with Nicole Ramos, an immigration attorney who lives in Tijuana, which borders San Diego. She is one of the few attorneys who accompanies and presents asylum seekers to CBP at the border.

In true bureaucratic fashion, many stories and claims from the various groups were not only inconsistent, but were in direct conflict with one another. When asked about whether or not CBP ever turns away people seeking asylum at the borders, CBP insisted that they never had and never would turn people away. (After all, it is against international law to refuse entry to any person seeking asylum). However, as we spoke to Ms. Ramos, we heard story after story of CBP agents turning her clients away at the border. And not just any border, but at the exact same port of entry we had visited the day before. She regaled stories of damning videos and tape recordings that show CBP doing the exact acts that they claimed never happened.

So, what do we make of this? On the one hand, recordings can be misleading and personal anecdotes are not conclusive evidence of anything. But at the same time, Ms. Ramos had specific numbers of how many aslyees are attempting to receive asylum in the U.S., including ones that she has personally accompanied, and the percentages of those who are then turned away by CBP. All of this contradictory information makes one wonder, how do we move forward in a society where all of the stories we hear are in direct conflict with one another? This brings me back to where we started; suddenly nostalgic for problems that could be solved and conclusive answers could be found, no matter how complicated.

-posted by KitJ for Anna Fullerton