PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A court in Philadelphia has upheld a ruling that would send 28 detained immigrant mothers and their children back to Latin America despite the women’s claims they would be persecuted upon return.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Monday denied asylum to the women from Honduras, Guatemala and Ecuador, saying their fears they’d face violence at home are “not credible.”
Judge D. Brooks Smith writes in the decision the justices are “sympathetic to the plight” of the petitioners. But he says the women arrived in the country “surreptitiously” and aren’t entitled to constitutional protections.
The women came over the U.S. border in Texas but are being held at the Berks County Residential Center in Pennsylvania.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt says they’ll appeal.
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