Deported to Third Countries: Asylum Seekers' Crisis

0:00It's April 2nd, this is Durham News Today, AI-powered stories from your city. Over 13,000 immigrants legally waiting on asylum claims in the US just got hit with deportation orders to third countries. They got no. Connection 2. Like Afghanistan folks headed to Uganda or Cubans to Ecuador. This kicked off last summer when immigration lawyers started filing motions to shut down asylum cases outright, wrapping up after an October ruling. From the Justice Department's appeals board, that greenlit sending people to any spot the State Department calls safe. Families are freaking out, stuck in limbo, with no core hearings, banned from legal work, and some locked up in detention, the fear spreading through. Communities pushing some to drop cases and head home. Advocates say it's all about scaring folks into leaving, but actual deportations, barely a hundred so far, way less than expected. Mid March, top officials emailed field attorneys to pump the brakes on new orders, no explanation given, though old cases keep rolling leaving.

1:03Thousands in this weird holding pattern as policy shifts play out.