Politics

Immigration attorneys and immigrant-rights groups in the Texas border city of El Paso said they have formed a coalition aimed at providing greater support for asylum seekers facing a hurdle-ridden application process.

The director of the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Louie Gilot, said cases of Mexicans fleeing drug-related violence have risen significantly over the past two years and that the asylum seekers include former police officers, rights activists, journalists, business leaders and even government officials.

Just across the Rio Grande from El Paso is Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's murder capital and the largest city in Chihuahua state, which accounted for nearly a third of the 2010 nationwide drug-war death toll of more than 15,000.

Announcement of the coalition of asylum applicants coincides with a statement by Mexican activist Cipriana Jurado that she has begun the process of seeking political asylum.

Jurado told Efe Tuesday that she had kept up her activism over the past five years despite the slayings of more than 19 colleagues and family members but finally decided to flee Mexico to save her own life and seek protection for herself and her children in the United States.

"Being a woman and fighting for human rights in Mexico has become one of the most dangerous occupations," her attorney, Carlos Spector, said.

Jurado said she had been issued a visa to go to Chicago and talk about the situation in Chihuahua. A day before her visa expired, on Dec. 17, activist Marisela Escobedo was killed outside the Chihuahua governor's office.

"That's when I knew I wouldn't go back to Mexico. My life and my children's lives are at risk in my country," she said.

"I've fought to defend workers, to stop homicides and kidnappings in Juarez, but I never thought that one day my fight would be to defend my own life," Jurado said.

The activist said the situation has deteriorated in the last five years with the deployment of military soldiers to the region.

Rights groups such as London-based Amnesty International have called attention to a rapid increase in murders and other human rights violations in Chihuahua committed by soldiers deployed to battle drug cartels.

Recently, anti-crime activist Marisela Ortiz left Ciudad Juarez and the police chief in the nearby town of Praxedis G. Guerrero, Marisol Valles, quit her job and went into exile in the United States.

In addition to those departures, more than 30 members of the Reyes Salazar family - six of whose members have been killed, including prominent rights activist Josefina Reyes - sought refuge earlier this month in the United States after receiving death threats.

Spector said the U.S. government is reluctant to grant political asylum to Mexican applicants because doing so means recognizing that aid from Washington is financing military abuses against the Mexican civilian population.

Both Spector and Gilot said the coalition will encourage Mexican organizations and leaders in the United States to come together and speak out on behalf of Mexicans who arrive in the country terrified and seeking political asylum.

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