Trump Sent Asylum Seekers Back Into “the Depths of Hell”

In August 2019, I wrote an article for the now-defunct Pacific Standard magazine about Martin, an asylum seeker from Cameroon who was denied protection by the United States and faced imminent deportation to a country torn asunder by civil war.

Martin, a member of the nation’s English-speaking minority, had taken part in demonstrations going back to 2016 denouncing the marginalization of the Anglophone population by the central government, which responded with deadly violence and began targeting protesters like him. Fearing for his life as the conflict between separatists and security forces that evolved into a full-fledged...