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Activists warn of a 500% growth in migrants, refugees and displaced persons, who are waiting in northern Mexico to resolve their papers in order to cross the border with the United States. Almost ten days after the expiration of Title 42, the US authorities indicate that receptions of these people are declining, while they continue to expel migrants who do not meet the requirements of the new Title 8 to their places of origin and to Mexico.
Migration overwhelms the shelters in Tijuana, in northern Mexico. Ten days after the completion of Title 42, the anti-immigration policy that former US President Donald Trump imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, border human rights groups denounce the saturation of refugee centers and migrants: “They have increased by up to 500%, especially of displaced people,” the director of the shelter told EFE Agape World Mission, Albert Rivera Colon.
Josefina Gónzalez, a displaced woman from the state of Guerrero who lives in one of the border shelters, confirmed the saturation of the shelter where she is residing: “Many people have been arriving, I don’t know if it is because Title 42 has already ended, but there are many people arriving daily, we have seen many people here”.
These often congested places used to host between 300 and 400 people, mostly migrants from Central America, Venezuela, Haiti or Colombia, at their facilities. But as the parish priest Rivera points out, there are almost 1,000 people who are there in these moments of uncertainty, including families with minors. “They are increasing too much, especially the displaced in the shelter and we hope that more will surely arrive; and every day they are calling us to see if we have space, ”he complains.
With the expiation of the US regulations, which allowed the “hot” or immediate expulsion of people who tried to reach the United States without documents, Title 8 came into force. Now migrants who are expelled from US territory will not be able to return there for five years. In the first three days of Title 8 alone, US authorities expelled more than 2,500 people. But not all of them are returned to their countries of origin: others simply remain in a border limbo on the Mexican side.
Thousands of migrants wait in shelters to cross into the United States
Stranded, unable to make the transit to their countries –due to lack of money or for reasons of security and persecution–, but also not received by the Mexican authorities.
“The Government of Mexico should know that once migrants are returned by Title 8, they will not be able to enter the US for five years and they should have a shelter and a job bank for them, so that people seek to insert themselves to society while they fix their situation,” denounced Pastor Rivera.
The shelters, which act as reception points for migrants and refugees en route to the United States, do not receive those expelled by the anti-immigration regulations that now prevail. The reason is the lack of lawyers to resolve the legal situation of the expelled persons, for which they are asking the Mexican authorities for collaboration to resolve a situation that could get out of control in the coming months. According to the Tijuana activist, Mexico promised to attend to these people through the reception agreement, but they are not complying with it.
“In the last 48 hours there were 3,000 daily encounters at the border”
And while on the Mexican side uncertainty reigns among stranded migrants who hope to resolve their documents – through the CBP One appointment application – in order to cross into the “American dream”, the US authorities said on Friday that the reception of migrants by patrols were decreasing, assuming fewer crossings. “In the last 48 hours there were 3,000 daily encounters at the border, this is a reduction of more than 70%,” said US Homeland Security official Blas Núñez-Neto.
A little over a week after the end of Title 42, Núñez-Neto also admitted that some 11,000 people had been sent to some thirty countries and that more than 1,000 people from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba had been returned to Mexico under of the agreements with the neighboring country. US officials celebrate that border receptions had been cut in half since last May 11.
“We are encouraged by this progress, but it is too early to draw any definitive conclusions or predict trends,” reads a statement from the border agency.
Despite the new restrictions, there are thousands of people who are in transit in search of a more dignified life. A journey that for many migrants, who begin their journey in South America, begins in the dangerous Darién Gap, the porous jungle border between Colombia and Panama.
According to UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations, the flows continue to increase. “If that pace continued, we would see record numbers of people crossing,” said Kelly Clements, the UN’s deputy high commissioner for refugees. For migrants and refugees who manage to cross, this is the first challenge. If they make it as far as northern Mexico, it won’t be the dangers of the jungle, but the bureaucracy and strict regulations that keep them on their toes.
With EFE, Reuters and local media
