Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Doug Jones of Alabama joined the group.
Sen. Sinema says Operation Safe Return applies to migrants without “credible fear”
Senators Johnson and Sinema are the primary proponents of the Operation Safe Return. They developed the program after a meeting with President Donald Trump and White House officials, who were focused on changing asylum laws and challenging the Flores Agreement in courts.
The Trump administration recently published its proposed stricter asylum rule to reduce the number of Central American migrants attempting to enter the United States at the southern border to seek protections.
In an interview with AZCentral, Sinema said, “I just felt those weren’t the right answers. We wanted to solve the problem. We wanted to protect the asylum process for valid applicants … and we want to respect the Flores decision.”
She also explained, “This pilot program would apply to families who aren’t claiming ‘credible fear,’ which of course is the first threshold in seeking asylum. If someone says ‘I left my country because I can’t make a living,’ (or) ‘it’s hard to take care of my family’ — that’s what we call an economic migrant.”
