Immigration: smugglers spread erroneous information across the border. The White House says now is not the time to come.

Immigration: smugglers spread erroneous information across the border. The White House says now is not the time to come.

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki warned on Wednesday that the changes will take time.

“Now is not the time to come,” said Psaki, citing the pandemic and continued efforts to implement a comprehensive process. “The vast majority of people will be rejected. Asylum processes at the border will not take place immediately, they will take time to be implemented.”

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In the meantime, there is little clarity about what happens next, leaving space for smugglers to convey their messages.

“Misinformation on the part of smugglers is a problem. They are salespeople,” said John Sandweg, a former senior Homeland Security official in the Obama administration. “The longer these people sit where they are in this purgatory, the more likely they are to be attracted to coyotes to meet,” he added, referring to smugglers who are also sometimes called “coyotes. “

Rumors take over

Joe Biden began his presidency by signing a series of executive immigration orders demanding the reversal of his predecessor’s hard-line policies. But in the absence of information about when the new policies will take effect, rumors have spread, leaving defenders and lawyers for immigrants facing a billion-dollar smuggling industry.

“The rumors are weakening morale both (lawyers) and migrants,” said Jodi Goodwin, an immigration lawyer who represents clients forced to stay in Mexico.

It is common for smugglers to lie to migrants to sell their services, but years of Trump policies that left thousands of people waiting on the southern border of the U.S. have resulted in networks that operate just miles from the United States, according to Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor associate at George Mason University, which studies migrant smuggling networks. This poses an urgent challenge for the Biden government.

“More and more, now you see specialized networks of smuggling of migrants operating on the border,” said Correa-Cabrera.

Under the Trump administration, migrants from Central America and other parts of the world seeking asylum on the U.S.-Mexico border were forced to remain in Mexico until the United States immigration court hearings. Many remained along the border, where they would have to appear at their court hearings.

While it is difficult to know exactly how many people are waiting to be admitted along the southern border, there are more than 22,700 cases pending in the courts that judge these cases along the border, according to the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas in Austin, which released a report on the program.

There are also migrants along the border who have been repelled by a public health order instituted by Trump that allows for the quick expulsion of migrants as well as newcomers, creating a tenuous situation along the border. Migrants can be easily identified based on their accents or dress and, as a result, become victims of gangs and corrupt officials, among others.

With the change in administrations, the hope arose that people who waited months, if not years, could apply for asylum in the United States and be allowed to enter.

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During the transition between administrations, officials acknowledged that migrants’ expectations of the Biden administration were vulnerable to being shaped by smugglers, according to a source familiar with the discussions. “The statement that Susan (Rice) and Jake (Sullivan) made in December reflects the knowledge that human smuggling networks would attack people,” said the source.

Rice and Sullivan gave an interview to a Spanish-language media outlet that they published in December warning that changes along the US-Mexico border would take time.
The Department of Homeland Security, which recently got its secretary, has been working around the clock to establish an orderly process for admitting migrants to the US-Mexico border, taking into account precautions against the coronavirus. This week, Customs and Border Protection announced the opening of a facility with flexible sides in Donna, Texas, to expand processing capacity.

‘They can literally see the United States’

As the government sets out lawsuits, people across the border with the United States are desperate.

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“We are not looking at people in Latin America, South America, who think that now is the time to migrate. These are people who are already there, ”said Taylor Levy, a California immigration lawyer who works with migrants along the southern border. “They are so close that they can literally see the United States.”

Levy receives dozens of messages daily from migrants through Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp trying to get clarification on the plans of the Biden government. She also posts videos on Facebook to provide updates on what is happening at the border, with the proviso that she does not work for the U.S. government and therefore has limited information. A video posted earlier this month had more than 300 comments from people reiterating hope, expressing frustration or sharing what they heard on the ground.
It is not clear whether misinformation is causing an increase in seizures at the border. But a recent change in Mexican law that resulted in the release of some migrant families to the United States has created more confusion and frustrated many people who are still waiting after being subjected to Trump-era policy.

“I cannot explain why, how or what are the next steps. It’s getting to the point where people are very frustrated with you, ”said Levy, adding that smugglers are exploiting the frustration that migrants are feeling.

Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that some migrants will be prosecuted for removal in the U.S.

“According to long-standing practice, when long-term retention solutions are not possible, some migrants will be sued for removal, will receive an Attendance Notice and will be released in the U.S. to await a future immigration hearing,” says the statement. “As the administration looks at the current immigration process, balancing it with the ongoing pandemic, we will continue to use all current authorities to avoid keeping individuals in a congregated environment for any period of time.”

The Biden government has tried to moderate expectations about how quickly they can reverse the policies of the previous government, but it can also work against them. In some cases, smugglers will offer their services as a faster way to get to the US instead of waiting, according to Correa-Cabrera.

“People are not doing this because they think the border will open up for them, but because of the expectation that, once there, they will be treated with more respect,” said Correa-Cabrera.

Meanwhile, lawyers and immigrant lawyers are trying to strike a delicate balance between offering hope and, at the same time, asking for patience.

“The question here is until they find out what the right strategy is, that the void will be filled by others,” said Jennifer Quigley, refugee defense director at Human Rights First.

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