Texas border agents freeing some immigrant families after Mexico refused to accept them back

Border patrol agents in parts of Texas began freeing some undocumented immigrant families after Mexican authorities refused to accept them back under a Trump-era policy that expelled thousands of people who illegally crossed into the U.S.

This marks a significant change from the past few years, when former President Donald Trump ordered all immigrants and asylum seekers caught trying to enter the United States illegally to be sent back to Mexico. Since March 2020, US Customs and Border Protection has immediately expelled 382,552 immigrants back to Mexico. Citing a section of the public health code known as Title 42, the Trump administration said it was necessary to deport immigrants to stop the spread of the coronavirus. But an unintended consequence of the policy was that immigrants repeatedly tried to cross undetected, increasing the number of arrests at the border.

CBP said the families were recently released due to COVID-19 restrictions that caused some of their facilities to reach maximum capacity. Mexico also recently passed a law that prohibits authorities from keeping undocumented immigrant children in detention centers. With no space to keep families in US detention centers and Mexico refusing to receive them, CBP began last week to release them in Texas border cities like McAllen and Brownsville.

“The COVID-19 protocols, changes in Mexican law and the limited US detention capacity forced us to adapt,” said CBP. “For migrants who are released, CBP can work with non-governmental organizations that will assist them during the process outside of custody.”

The National Immigration Institute (INM), Mexico’s immigration enforcement agency, declined requests from BuzzFeed News for comment. However, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters that there were adjustments to “local” policy, citing a child protection law passed last year. A senior Mexican official told the news agency that the changes were “small” and appeared to be limited to the state of Tamaulipas, which is across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

The release of the families was used by immigration hawks and former Trump administration officials to warn of an impending border crisis, fueled by recent executive orders from President Joe Biden. Chad Wolf, the former interim secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted that the change marked the return of “fish and release” and warned that this will lead to a “total crisis” at the border.

The phrase “catch and release” was condemned by defenders of immigrants who say it is a dehumanizing way of describing the practice of allowing asylum seekers to wait outside detention while their cases are on trial.

In Del Rio, Texas, which is also across from Tamaulipas, a shelter operated by the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition said it saw an increase in the number of immigrants seeking help. In a Facebook post on January 30, the organization said that, on average, it used to help 25 people a week. Now, the coalition said, it is helping at least 50 immigrants a day.

A DHS official told BuzzFeed News that the release of a number of families was taking place only in a border area. Local media reported that up to 50 immigrant families a day were released in Brownsville; a shelter in McAllen told Reuters it has served 50 to 80 people a day since January 27.

Shelters in San Diego are also seeing higher numbers.

Kate Clark, senior director of immigration services for the San Diego Jewish Family Service, which operates shelters for immigrants, said she helped 54 asylum seekers in December.

“In January, we received 110 asylum seekers, the highest number we’ve seen in the past 10 months,” she added.

It is not clear why some families were allowed to enter the United States and others continue to be expelled to Tijuana. An INM official in Baja California said that they continue to receive Title 42 immigrants and that there is no order or agreement saying Mexico will no longer accept families.

Taylor Levy, an El Paso-based immigration lawyer, said the number of asylum-seeking families released in the middle and south of Texas began to rise on January 27. Some of these families were from countries that CBP cannot officially expel back to Mexico, such as Haitians, Cubans and Venezuelans, said Levy. But others were Central Americans.

“There are approximately 50 people released per day, which are very moderate numbers,” said Levy.

Even so, warned Levy, some immigrants continue to be expelled instead of being released in the United States, either by land to Mexico or by air to their countries of origin.

“Title 42 [expulsions] continue normally in the El Paso, Arizona and California sectors, “said Levy.

Historically, said a source with knowledge of the situation, INM detained immigrant children and families, transferred them to the Mexican version of child protection services and determined their right to stay. Now, because of the new law, expelled immigrant families can only be taken to the agency’s shelters as long as they have capacity.

But Levy said the new policy makes no sense because the INM almost never detained families that were expelled under Trump’s Title 42.

“While some people who were expelled by Title 42 were handed over directly to INM,” said Levy, “a large number of people were taken to the middle of the bridge by CBP and told to walk south. That’s it. There was zero interaction of any Mexican state or federal authority. “

In some cases, families expelled from the US have been taken to shelters in Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana, Levy said, but this is not considered detention and will not be affected by the new Mexican law.

Joanna Williams, director of education and defense for the Kino Border Initiative, a non-profit organization based in Nogales, Arizona, said that, with the exception of four or five exceptions last year, INM never gave families or individuals any kind of document afterwards to be expelled. The agency can give them instructions on how to get to a shelter, but immigrants have to make their own way there.

“Essentially, they are left on the street,” said Williams.

The evictions of immigrant families continued in the Nogales area, she added.

Previously in Matamoros, Mexico, across the Brownsville border, Mexican immigration officials issued documents to expelled families giving them permission to stay, said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Thereafter, families were “more or less” left to figure out where to go, she added.

The southern Texas border has been one of the busiest areas for immigrants trying to cross into the U.S., but Trump administration policies have effectively isolated the border in recent years.

Before the pandemic was declared, the United States used another policy known as Migrant Protection Protocols to stop releasing families into the country. Under the MPP, unofficially known as the “Stay in Mexico” policy, immigrants and asylum seekers would be forced to wait in Mexico for their cases to be tried by a US immigration judge. Thousands of immigrants are still waiting, some in dangerous border cities, although the Biden government announced in January that it would stop enrolling new immigrants in the program.