LOS ANGELES – President Biden’s first immigration crisis has already started when thousands of families have emerged towards the southwestern border in recent weeks, driven by the expectation of a more friendly reception and a change in Mexican policy that makes it more difficult for the United States expel some of the migrants.
More than 1,000 people have been allowed to enter the country in the past few days, in a rapid reversal of the near closure of the border by the Trump administration. Many others are flocking to Mexico in hopes of a similar chance to cross, according to lawyers and aid groups working along the border.
New families have gathered every day in the cities on the Mexican border, sleeping on the streets, under bridges and in dry ditches. On Thursday, in Mexicali, in front of Calexico, California, desperate migrants were seen trying to climb a border fence. A migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, across a Texas bridge, has grown to 1,000 people in recent weeks.
To protect against the coronavirus, health officials in San Diego provided accommodation for hundreds of migrants arriving in a skyscraper in the center of the city, where they are being quarantined before they can join family or friends inside United States.
“There has been a significant increase in the arrival of asylum seekers and we know that the numbers will only continue to increase dramatically,” said Kate Clark, senior director of immigration services for the Jewish Family Service in San Diego, which provides assistance to families with clothing and items personal hygiene and help them organize their trip.
The increase represents the first major test of Biden’s promise to adopt a more compassionate policy along the United States’ border with Mexico.
The prospect of a large number of migrants entering the country during a pandemic could create a strong public reaction for Biden, while his government takes steps to undo the rigid policies put in place by his predecessor.
A renewed influx would put pressure on immigration courts, which are already under a huge backlog of asylum cases. Those who advocate more restrictive immigration policies say that migrants who lose their cases can go underground, choosing to remain in the country illegally and adding to the nearly 10 million undocumented people who are already in the United States.
“It was predictable that there would be virtually no honeymoon for the Biden government in the multiple crises that are displacing people in the North Triangle states of Central America and elsewhere,” said Donald Kerwin, executive director of the Center for Migration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank.
This includes the two hurricanes that destroyed many livelihoods and homes in Guatemala and Honduras; the devastating effect of the pandemic on Latin American economies; and continued gang control of many communities, often accompanied by extortion and violence.
“The Biden government should be credited with its commitment to dealing with the uprooting conditions of Central Americans,” said Kerwin, “but this will be a very long-term process and in the meantime, people have been forced to flee.”
Before former President Donald J. Trump took office, it was a longstanding practice in several administrations to allow people facing persecution in their home countries to enter the United States and file asylum applications. Some new migrants were detained until their cases were decided, while others were released.
But Trump ridiculed policies like “catch and release” and in 2019 he imposed a requirement that candidates wait in Mexico until their asylum applications were approved or denied. In March last year, his government invoked an emergency health law to effectively close the border during the pandemic, except for citizens and legal residents of the United States. Those who tried to cross were summarily expelled back to Mexico.
But Mexico in recent days began implementing a law passed in November that prohibits the custody of children under the age of 12 in government custody. As a result, it stopped accepting Central American families with young children back in Mexico, at least along some stretches of the Texas border, forcing the United States to keep them. To avoid keeping a large number of people in shelters or immigration detention centers during a health crisis, the Border Patrol has released some of them to join family and friends in the United States.
At least 1,000 migrants have been allowed to enter Texas in the past few days, border activists said, although the Border Patrol has not released any official estimates.
It is unclear to what extent the new Mexican law on migrant children applies outside the expulsions from Texas, where Mexicans are applying it. But hundreds of migrants were also freed after crossing near the border in San Ysidro, California, activists said, and the need to avoid congestion at border facilities during the pandemic is likely to be a factor as well.
Health officials in San Diego have determined that those entering California must stay at the hotel for 10 days before they can proceed. There is no similar quarantine requirement in Texas for migrants arriving without symptoms of coronavirus, according to volunteers who work with the migrants; there, they said, those released by the Border Patrol are being allowed to board buses and travel to other destinations.
The Jewish Family Service, which is helping families in quarantines at hotels in San Diego, said 140 migrants were released by the Border Patrol to the nonprofit in January, compared with 54 in December. During the first five days of February, the number grew to over 200.
“This is the biggest movement in a long time,” said Clark. “We are working non-stop to keep up.”
News of the Mexican law spread confusion, with many migrants mistakenly believing that the law, along with the change of administration, means that the United States will now allow anyone to cross.
Mother Isabel Turcios, a nun in Piedras Negras, Mexico, a small town in front of Eagle Pass, Texas, described a chaotic situation with migrants arriving by the dozens of trains every day and parking on street corners and in abandoned houses, hoping for a chance to cross.
“There are many, many mothers with children coming,” she said. “They think they will be able to pass because there is a new president. Some are succeeding, not all. “
At the migrant camp in Matamoros, “Every day when we return to the camp, there are new families,” said Andrea Leiner, of Global Response Management, who runs two clinics.
The Border Patrol released 47 families on Tuesday in Kingsville, Texas, and then notified a defense group in Houston that the migrants were in need of help.
Despite the repression of the Trump administration’s borders, there was an increase in seizures – rising to 850,000 – on the southwestern border in fiscal year 2019. Prisons plummeted in fiscal 2020 as a result of pandemic-related movement restrictions. However, more than 70,000 migrants and asylum seekers were arrested along the border in December, the last full month of the Trump administration.
Defense organizations across the country predicted that Biden’s election would motivate people to head north again. In the past few weeks, they have been calling Zoom to set up strategies on how to handle the flow.
But the peak came sooner than expected.
Biden said before taking office that he would not immediately open the border, hoping to avoid a wave of migration. On February 2, he signed an executive order directing a complete overhaul of the asylum process, but government officials said that changes to the current system would take time to materialize.
“Unfortunately, there are thousands of people and families – including many on the border – who are still suffering thanks to the cruel and ineffective policies that the Trump administration has implemented,” said Vedant Patel, assistant press secretary for the White House. “Full remediation of these actions will take time and will require a full government approach.”
Despair is increasing among asylum seekers in Tijuana and Mexicali, California’s border crossings, with misinformation spreading across social networks and smuggling networks trying to profit from the confusion.
“Confirmed: migrants accompanying minors can enter the United States for 100 days,” said a widely spread, but inaccurate message on WhatsApp.
In Tijuana, lawyers report that more families are choosing to cross the border illegally, hoping to escape detection, rather than waiting for clarity on the asylum process, which would involve trying to pass through an official transit station, under the risk of being denied entry.
“Migrants are starting to not trust defenders because we said that the Biden government would start suing them right after they took office – because that was the impression we were getting from the transition team,” said Erika Pinheiro, lawyer for the Al Otro group. Side .
“After executive orders came out without substantive information, many of the migrants were angry with us and started listening to smugglers and wild rumors,” she said.
Dozens of Haitian families crossed the border illegally near San Ysidro on Thursday, according to a border assistance group, but it was not clear whether they were returned to Mexico or taken into custody.
In San Diego, more hotels have been formed to receive migrants, said Clark of the Jewish Family Service. “We are going to need federal resources,” she said.
One of the families allowed on Friday was José Giusto Duarte, 51, and his wife Iliana, 45. The couple had fled Honduras 18 months ago because of the violence, Duarte said, but was allowed to enter the United States only during the week passed on humanitarian probation because of his wife’s poor health.
The couple had been waiting in Tijuana since they left Honduras, but decided to try their luck again with Biden in charge.
“I’m very relieved and happy right now, after waiting so long,” said Duarte, smiling. After a few hours in custody of the Border Patrol, they could proceed to the hotel in the city center for quarantine.
Alexander Martinez and his three children, who fled gangs in El Salvador, were also authorized last week. After an exhaustive interview, the US authorities transferred them to the hotel where they were staying with dozens of other families of quarantined migrants.
There, they were confined to a double room with a terrace on the third floor. Someone knocks on your door three times a day to deliver meals in disposable containers. A nurse calls every day to check the temperature. On Wednesday, they each took a coronavirus test. In the coming days, they will be free to join relatives in Washington.
Martinez said the extra wait was worth it, even though his children were really bored in the quarantine. “We are very happy to be in the United States,” he said.
Miriam Jordan reported from Los Angeles, and Max Rivlin-Nadler from San Ysidro, California.