Immigration Update: Status of Asylum Seekers at the US-Mexico Border & Beyond

Monday, September 7, 2020 - 1:00pm
Rebecca M. Eichler

Rebecca M. Eichler, Esq. has 20 years of experience as an immigration attorney working with clients from around the world seeking protection under U.S. and international law. She currently lives and works in Mexico as a human rights advocate. Through her work with deportees from U.S. and migrants at the U.S. border, she has gained a unique perspective on the systemic human rights abuses perpetrated by the Trump administration and its violations of U.s. immigration law and international asylum obligations.

Working with nongovernmental organizations on the ground in Mexico, Ms. Eichler has aided deported Mexicans and their U.S.-citizen families in coping with their expulsion from the U.S. and establishing legal status in Mexico, a country where, despite their Mexican heritage, many have never lived. She spearheaded the Guanajuato and Queretaro states’ legal aid response to the Central American caravans transiting through Mexico in Fall 2018, assembling a team of lawyers and providing individual legal consultations and know-your-rights presentations to hundreds of migrants on what to expect at the U.S. border. Ms. Eichler advised individuals, including unaccompanied minors, waiting at the border in Tijuana and Matamoros on the legal requirements of asylum in the U.S. and mentally and physically prepared and walked with children to present themselves for U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention.