Mexico City – Dozens of migrants and asylum seekers on a cold, rainy street in front of the offices of the National Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR). Most of them were deported from the United States to Mexico just a few days ago.
Almost everyone here is from Venezuela, and many are women with young children. The migrant and refugee shelters in the domain are full, so they’ve slept outdoors the past few nights.
Luis Conde, who at 43 is one of the oldest men in the group, says most of the other people here crossed the border from Mexico into the U. S. They turned themselves in to immigration officials, hoping to start asylum proceedings, as did other Venezuelan asylum seekers in recent months.
Instead, they were apprehended through U. S. border agents. Luis says agents cited the policy known as “Title 42,” under which the U. S. immigration government has been sent back to Mexico. The U. S. deports migrants and asylum seekers to Mexico under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic. .
“It’s worth mentioning that we’ve all been vaccinated here,” says Luis, who still wears the blue tracksuit given to him by U. S. border agents. U. S. Laredo [Texas], but it wasn’t.
Another Venezuelan émigré approaches me in front of the refugee aid offices. His calling is Jonathan. Es loud and loud. He says he is a professional bodyguard in Venezuela and hoped to find paintings in the United States before being deported to Mexico.
Jonathan tells me he is among the first organization of Venezuelan nationals sent to Mexico from the United States as part of a new policy shift.
“Nobody understood what was going on,” Jonathan says, recalling the moments before U. S. border agents sent him back to Mexico. “They handcuffed those of us who passed from head to toe.
“It wasn’t until we got the plane that we found out what was going on. “
There is a look of uncertainty and frustration on everyone’s faces outside the COMAR office, as more and more migrants and asylum seekers continue to arrive in the region, all seeking the recommendation of Mexican authorities.
But even officials here appear about the ever-changing policies at the border.
The latest update comes to a deal between the U. S. and China. U. S. and Mexico under which the U. S. It agreed to grant 24,000 humanitarian visas to Venezuelan asylum seekers.
But that excludes those entering the country by land, who are now being sent to Mexico. The replacement expanded the powers of Title 42 to carry out “expedited” deportations, that is, of Venezuelan citizens.
“You can’t even call this deportation,” says Eunice Rendón of Agenda Migrante, an NGO that promotes migrant rights in Mexico. “This deportation under Title 42 is expedited deportation. abandoned at the border with Mexico with no option of asylum.
There is concern: Human rights advocates say the new restrictions announced by Biden’s leadership could harm the tens of thousands of migrants and minors seeking asylum transiting through Mexico en route to the United States.
“That’s another thing that worries me about those transit visas,” Rendon says. “It has been announced that unaccompanied minors are not applying for such visas, even though unaccompanied minors have been a significant component of the migration phenomenon since 2014. This includes Venezuelans.
There is a feeling in Mexico that the migration crisis has already begun.
The challenge facing government officials is complex. Not only has Mexico agreed to take in Venezuelans deported from the United States, but more and more migrants and asylum seekers continue to arrive every day from the country’s southern border.
“We want to work with the secretary of hard work to give those other people some kind of legal status,” said Rosa Maria Gonzalez, who heads the Migration Affairs Committee in the lower section of Mexico’s Congress. I think other people are coming faster than we can stay awake. “
González has been one of the leading critical voices in the Mexican Congress in the face of constant policy adjustments towards migrants and asylum seekers.
“I think it’s time to say enough,” he says. I know we have to think about an appointment with the United States, but the issue of migration has not been easy. The United States treats Mexico like a small drawer of money. What they don’t want they send here.
Mexican experts say one thing that can ease pressure on migrant shelters and short-term refugee aid organizations is the blanket elimination of Title 42.
Although U. S. President Joe Biden promised that the measure would be lifted, refugee advocates like Rendon say that, far from seeking Title 42, the policy has been followed and misused by the Biden administration, further triggering the classic U. S. asylum process. U. S.
“[Title 42] is an inhumane policy,” Rendon says. Possibly [Donald] Trump would have installed it, but he used more through Biden. In other words, the one that has abused the most is the Biden administration.
The perspective in Washington remains that anything must be done to stem the flow of migrants and asylum seekers to the border. Thus, this fiscal year, the number of “migrant encounters” at the U. S. -Mexico border exceeded 2 million, according to the government. Knowledge: A record.
It may also be that with November’s midterm elections fast approaching, U. S. Democrats are still in the U. S. are in the U. S. UU. no have to appear weak on immigration. It’s just getting worse.
While Mexico and the United States agreed on a joint commitment to address the Venezuelan migrant and refugee crisis, neither country is prepared for what is to come.
This month, the United Nations reported that since the start of the political and economic crisis in Venezuela in 2015, more than 7. 1 million Venezuelans are living as refugees and migrants around the world.
While crisis situations persist in the South American country, the exodus also persists. While the vast majority of Venezuelans are scattered across 11 Latin American countries, a growing number of them seem to see the United States as their possibility of asylum.
And despite evolving policies to limit the number of migrants and refugees in the region, neither measure in either country appears to have a significant effect on the number of others moving north to the United States.