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Father of two murdered in Tijuana while waiting for asylum

The victim and his family made it to the border and claimed asylum earlier this year, but under U.S. policy they were forced to wait in Mexico for a court date.
Credit: KFMB

An El Salvadorian husband and father has been murdered in Tijuana while waiting for asylum in the United States.

The victim and his family made it to the border and claimed asylum earlier this year, but under U.S. policy they were forced to wait in Mexico for a court date in San Diego.

On November 21, the body of the father was found stabbed, dismembered and dumped near downtown Tijuana.

“He was kidnapped, tortured for a day, his body was mutilated with stab wounds; then, his body was dumped and found two days afterwards,” said the family’s attorney, Richard Sterger.

The Escondido immigration attorney said this should never have happened.

“The central tenet of refugee and asylum law is that we do not place people in harm’s way. Leaving people in Tijuana or Ciudad Juárez – two of the most violent cities on the planet – it’s ridiculous that these people are safe. We're sending lambs to the slaughter,” said Sterger.

Ironically, the widow and her two children later were granted entry into the United States after she presented her husband’s death certificate at the border.

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For safety reasons, News 8 is not identifying the family. They are living with relatives in San Francisco, as they wait for their asylum hearing.

The tragedy mirrors another immigration case CBS News 8 has been following for months.

In August, an American father of three was murdered in Tijuana two days after his wife and children claimed asylum at the border in San Ysidro. Phillip Caldwell, 40, was murdered in a mass shooting that killed six people in the Tres de Octubre neighborhood of Tijuana. Caldwell’s wife, Dulce Rosario, and her three children currently are living in El Cajon. Rosario simultaneously is pursuing an asylum case and a green card application as the widow of a U.S. citizen.

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