Several dozen Central American migrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border again, this time escorted by federal agents to an El Paso, Texas, courtroom as part of an unprecedented effort by the Trump administration to control migration.

During a hearing last week, the judge asked the migrants one by one if they had a lawyer. Nearly all of them said, “No.”

That’s not unusual. More than 6,000 migrants who came to the United States to ask for asylum have been sent back to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, to wait for their day in U.S. immigration court under the “Remain in Mexico” program. But only about 20 of them have lawyers, according to human rights groups and attorneys who work with the migrants.

Remain in Mexico is a key part of the Trump administration’s plan to turn back a crush of migrants at the southern border, and it’s a historic shift in how the asylum system works.

Fear, Confusion And Separation As Trump Administration Sends Migrants Back To Mexico

Photos: Paul Ratje for NPR