The “port immigration courts” built by federal contractors in two massive tents near Brownsville and Laredo this summer at a cost of $25 million will be closed to legal observers, the press and the public according to a Trump administration announcement this week.
The Department of Homeland Security indicated in a statement that immigration judges in San Antonio will remotely hear those cases over a video link.
Judges from other Texas cities such as Harlingen and Port Isabel would also be hearing the cases of more than 42,000 asylum seekers who were returned to Mexico in accordance with the Trump administration’s “ Remain in Mexico” program which began in January of 2019.
Immigration lawyers condemned the restrictions and the blocking of public access to immigration court hearings as a violation of the due process rights of asylum seekers.
