MCRI ·
Number of Mexicans Seeking Asylum Rises
(PRWEB)
March 21, 2012
Los Angeles, CA
According to a report released by Fronteras at the beginning of March, the number of Mexicans seeking political asylum in the U.S. has nearly doubled in the last year. Fronteras, a multimedia collaboration of radio stations, compared the U.S. Department of Justice Immigration Courts Asylum Statistics from 2010 and 2011, finding an increase of 2,900 applicants as a result of the country's drug war violence.
Mexico's staggering drug-related violence, destruction, loss of lives, torture and insecurity has inadvertently created a once-in-a-generation opportunity for hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who have well-founded fears of returning to Mexico because of these conditions. According to federal courts, the United Nations' Convention Against Torture is applicable to a Mexican fleeing drug violence. This class of people may be eligible for asylum and thus be on the path to U.S. citizenship.