Biden’s asylum restrictions hit Mexicans and other nationalities welcomed in Mexico the hardest

Ana Ruiz was dismayed to see how migrants from some countries were released in the United States with orders to appear in immigration courts, while she and other Mexicans were deported on a bus trip one hour to the nearest border post.

“They are prioritizing other countries,” said Ruiz, 35, after tearfully calling his family in the southern state of Chiapas from the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter. The director of the shelter says they receive about 100 deportees a day, more than double what they saw before the president of the United States, Joe Biden, signed a decree that suspends asylum procedures on the border with Mexico when arrests for illegal border crossings reach 2,500 daily.

The suspension of asylum, which came into effect on June 5 and has meant a 40% reduction in illegal crossing arrests, applies to all nationalities. But it especially affects those who have the most options for deportation, specifically Mexicans and other people whom Mexico accepts to receive: Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

Lack of money for chartered flights, poor diplomatic relations and other operational complications make it more difficult to deport people from many countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the U.S. is working with countries around the world to accept more of its deported citizens, citing challenges ranging from diplomatic relations to the time it takes to obtain travel documents.

“The reality is that it’s easier to take people from some countries than other countries,” he said in an interview Wednesday in Tucson, Arizona. “Yes we take people to Senegal, we take people to Colombia, we take people to India. It may be more difficult,” she added.

Mexicans made up 38% of people detained in May, down from 85% in 2011 but still the most common nationality by far. The Border Patrol’s Tucson sector has been the busiest for illegal crossings for much of the year. Last year, nearly three out of every four detainees in that area were Mexican, which helps explain why the asylum freeze has had more effect in Arizona. U.S. authorities say the daily average for the past seven days in the Tucson sector fell to fewer than 600 arrests this week, down from nearly 1,200 on June 2.

Border agents in Arizona have faced a tough test since late 2022 with the arrival of people with difficult-to-deport nationalities, first from Cuba and then from Mauritania, Guinea and Senegal. Many cross near Lukeville, about a four-hour bus ride from a large processing center in Tucson.

Many Mexicans are crossing illegally much closer to Tucson, in Nogales, Arizona. Some scale a wall using ladders made from materials from a seatbelt plant on the Mexican side of the border, disappearing among homes and businesses in seconds. Others turn themselves in to border agents to ask for asylum, slipping through holes in the wall that are being repaired. A group of 49 people, mostly Mexicans, waited for agents on Tuesday.

Some were taken to the Border Patrol station in Nogales, where they can be held for six days if they express fear of deportation, under asylum waiver rules, and are seeking similar forms of protection that could allow them to stay, albeit with far more stringent requirements, such as the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

Most are moved to a cluster of huge white tents near Tucson International Airport, which opened in April 2021 for unaccompanied minors. It now has room for 1,000 people, including single adults and families, sleeping on foam mattresses or bunk beds.

On Tuesday, about a dozen people who said they were afraid of being deported sat on benches in a huge room waiting to receive instructions about the screening interview, which includes a four-hour window to call lawyers or others and get prepared. They were then directed to one of 16 soundproof telephone booths.

The Tucson processing center wasn’t even conducting such checks until Biden froze asylum applications. That meant more migrants were released with orders to appear in U.S. immigration court, a practice that has been sharply reduced in recent weeks. Interviews with asylum officials are conducted by phone and take about 90 minutes.

Many migrants who don’t make it through the filter are deported to Nogales, a large city on the Mexican side of the state of Sonora, and end up at San Juan Bosco, where a huge fan in an old chapel offers relief from the stifling summer heat.

Francisco Loureiro, who runs the shelter in a humble hillside neighborhood, said that a rumor is circulating among Mexicans that they will be deported if they turn themselves in to the authorities to ask for asylum, and that More people will try to avoid being captured. He assured that a deported migrant had accepted the offer of a smuggler who was next to the shelter on Tuesday to try to cross undetected.

Ruiz said she had not had the opportunity to explain to an asylum officer that she feared returning to Mexico because of cartel violence. “They were very direct questions with yes or no answers. I couldn’t say, ‘I’m afraid because…'” she explained.

Mayorkas said complaints about the process predated Biden’s June order.

“I am confident that our agents and officials are following the protocols, that our protocols are strong and that we have experience with people expressing fear,” he said.

Anahí Sandoval, 30, said she had tried to avoid capture after crossing the border in Nogales and finding herself abandoned by the smuggler in the desert. She said she had fled Chiapas after she and her husband, who owned a window and door business, refused to be extorted by gangs: her husband was murdered, and she left behind her daughter. with a family member.

“They give way to Colombians, but not to Mexicans,” said Sandoval, who did not pass her interview and said she felt angry.

Araceli Martinez, 32, said she is afraid to return home with her 14-year-old daughter to a physically abusive husband, but no one asked her and she didn’t know she had to ask for protection until she was on a bus bound for Mexico. Previously, Border Patrol agents had to ask migrants if they were afraid to return home. Under the new rules, migrants must say so without being asked or showing obvious signs of distress, such as crying.

Martinez was eager to pass the news on to others. “People come here thinking there is asylum, but there is no asylum,” she said.

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