By Miriam Raftery
Photo, left: Lilian Serrano, Director, Southern Border Communities Coalition
May 18, 2023 (Jacumba Hot Springs) — The U. S. Immigration Policy Center is on the ground that it will be released to the U. S. The U. S. Department of Homeland Security (USIPC) at the University of California, San Diego, has released a scathing report accusing the Border Patrol of endangering migrants’ lives by depriving them of food, water, shelter, medical care, care and other necessities. The damning report is titled Lives in Danger: Seeking Asylum in the Context of Increased Border Policing. It was released on May 16, two days after ECM revealed the story of some 1,000 to 2,000 migrants in Jacumba Hot Springs who received help from citizens after the Border Patrol failed to provide them with food or shelter.
In addition, the humanitarian nonprofit Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) filed a federal complaint with Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, alleging mistreatment of asylum seekers in Jacumba and violations of U. S. and U. S. laws. U. S.
Lilian Serrano, director of SBCC, told ECM in an interview with KNSJ radio that volunteers faced “families, children, the elderly and others who waited outdoors for days without access to food or water. “On filing the complaint, he said: “Our hope is that we can find out why there were open-air detention centers in our area, what the motive was, and why officials violated their policy in a full and transparent manner; And more importantly, what can we do to save it?Is this broadcast over and over again? Because whatever your situation, whether you apply for asylum or not, fundamental criteria will have to be respected. We cannot allow another child to walk hungry in front of a federal agent.
After Border Patrol agents surrounded migrants along the border fence in Jacumba, the Border Patrol claimed the migrants were not apprehended, though they were surrounded by Border Patrol agents and said they would be arrested if they attempted to leave, according to SBBC and USIPC. Detained migrants are entitled to humane reparation under U. S. Customs and Border Protection standards. U. S.
However, migrants detained for up to five days in the upper desert network said they only earned one bottle of water a day and that the maximum received no food from Border Patrol agents. They also didn’t get shade or other shelter from the sun, and at most everyone was given blankets to keep warm at night. Some also had severe physical disorders ignored or delayed in treatment.
Tara Kaveh of the Southern Border Communities Coalition told ECM, “A woguy suffered from life-threatening allergies. A child had seizures and a man had a leg infection. A 79-year-old woguy suffered a medical emergency from 8 a. m. Thursday at 10 p. m. , when aid workers nevertheless controlled that she was transferred to Scripps Hospital in Chula Vista for treatment, Kaveh said. or water, so the situations were worse. “
USIPC interviewed 15 migrants in one of Jacumba’s camps, which housed 150 people. Two-thirds agreed: “If I don’t get food and water from volunteers, I won’t get enough food and water from the Border Patrol to survive. “
Among the asylum seekers interviewed:
A third of the migrants had minor children. Almost a portion reported having a circle of relatives in the United States. Just over the share (56 per cent) were men and 44 per cent were women; The median age was 29 years. Some had camped in Jacumba for five days, the researchers found.
Photo, right: Asylum seekers in Jacumba, courtesy of We Are Human Kind
The investigation also raised troubling issues with the Biden administration’s adjustments to the asylum process.
Title 42, a public suitability measure, has been used during Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to require asylum seekers to wait in Mexico and not enter the United States. A declaration ending the pandemic led to the lifting of Title 42 around the time migrants arrived in Jacumba.
Anticipating a wave of asylum seekers with the lifting of Title 42 restrictions, the Biden administration has imposed a new requirement for migrants to apply for asylum on an application. Those who fail to do so can be deported and barred from returning to the United States for years.
But the USIPC survey found that while 100 percent of migrants said they had applied for asylum, 80 percent had never heard of the CBP One app now required. The 20% who said they knew about the app still couldn’t schedule appointments, for reasons like lack of web or Wi-Fi access, or technical issues. For example, applicants wanted to have the most recent edition of the app, some bug issues reported and the app is only available in 3 languages, posing language barriers for those who speak other languages, but no translators or assistance have been provided for those who want technical support. For families, each member of the family circle will have to apply separately, and some have not been able to get appointments together.
Asylum seekers in Jacumba arrived from all over the world, including India, Peru, Colombia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Mexico, Vietnam, African countries and places.
Prior to Title 42, migrants crossing the border can simply apply for asylum if they face a credible risk if they return to their home country. Under Title 8, they would be entitled to a hearing to determine whether or not they are qualified.
However, of the 15 migrants interviewed, only two said they were able to tell the Border Patrol they had applied for asylum, and none were interviewed through a U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officer. UU. no listen.
The USIPC concludes that asylum seekers “have been denied due process. “
Serrano says she, with Biden’s management, “the safest direction to asylum is through the ports of access. “She believes the border government deserves to be in a position to help those who can’t wait because their lives are in danger and who haven’t been able to access the app.
The challenge in Jacumba predictable. Serrano said families and small teams began arriving before Title 42 expired, and others arrived after. “Obviously, there aren’t many other people arriving at the border at the same time,” Serrano said.
The terrible scenario in Jacumba is not a remote incident. According to an SBCC press release, “the investigation corroborates situations reported through human rights monitors in several open-air detentions in California that CBP uses as pre-treatment without meeting custody standards. ” Although CBP is required to provide sufficient water, food, shelter, sanitation, and medical supplies to all detained migrants, the SBCC asserts that “this does not happen in California. “
A similar complaint was filed with the Department of Homeland Security over the remedy of asylum seekers trapped between fences along the border in San Ysidro in southern San Diego County, where migrants were also left without sufficient water, food or shelter for days.
While the Border Patrol provided critical humanitarian care to migrants in Jacumba, nonprofit members and teams provided assistance through the border wall, adding the American Friends Service Committee, SBCC, ISIPC and others. Volunteers charged migrants’ phones and distributed materials such as food, baby food, water, hygiene kits, diapers, clothing and blankets, and some of the aid continued after the migrants were on the U. S. side of the border.
Kaveh told ECM that the organization has known for months about migrants along the border near Jacumba and other communities in east county that have also gained a handful of migrants in recent days, such as Campo, Boulevard and Live Oak Springs. So how come the Border Patrol is unfortunately unprepared for the influx?
ECM reached out to the Border Patrol’s Southern District media representative for comment but did not hear back. ECM also reached out to California Sen. Alex Padilla’s office but got no response.
“We call on Congress to stand up to the stage and hold CBP accountable,” Kaveh told ECM. “Senator Padilla has been one of our biggest supporters on this. “
Serrano said the most powerful reaction came from state Sen. Steve Padilla. “He accompanied us several times there. ” But even his workplace hasn’t been able to get answers from federal authorities, Serrano said.
Despite foreign media policy of similar conditions in the afterlife along the U. S. -Mexico border, Kaveh says little has been done to ensure a humane remedy or due process for asylum seekers. CBP has been silent on the fate of migrants picked up in Jacumba, most of whom have now been taken on buses, though the prospect of deportation looms for the max.
Kaveh says white immigrants get a favorable settlement compared to black and brown immigrants, further complicating the situation. “For Central American and black immigrants, other people don’t care,” he said. “Even when we take it to the government or to Congress, they don’t see it. “
If national security fails to address the considerations raised in the complaint, the SBCC has other options, adding imaginable legal action. The organization also hopes that Congress will make some oversight, accountability and reforms to save such conditions in the future.
The turmoil here resonates beyond the unrest in other border cities, adding to Del Rio, Texas, where a few years ago migrants on U. S. soil had to wait outdoors for long periods of time waiting for the Border Patrol to pick them up and begin processing them. their asylum applications.
“This is not right,” he concludes Kaveh. Es a humanitarian crisis with human rights violations, foreign violations, but they also violate their own policies by doing this. This is no man’s land. They are on U. S. soil in CBP custody. . . Everyone we spoke to is seeking asylum and fears being killed in their own country. If they could go back, they would. No one needs to remain in those conditions.
Serrano needs follow-up for those who were abused in Jacumba. “We need to make sure that our government is doing the right thing, which is taking care of those we have left out, left to starve. . . We have stripped of their dignity and humanity, so now is the time to repair that,” he said.
Serrano points out that all levels of government will have to work in combination to find genuine solutions. Migration is a global phenomenon, he emphasizes. ” People come and pass every day, not only in our country, but all over the world. “The genuine question is how to handle migration, how to eliminate other people and treat them with dignity and humanity. “
He urges the public to talk to their elected officials. “As citizens, it is our duty to have our elected officials do their jobs. “.
“At this point, our conversations deserve to be about what kind of country we should be. “She concludes, “The movements of Border Patrol agents over the past few weeks in our network are obviously not representative of the values we hold. . . Regardless of your afterlife or the long term that awaits you in our legal system, you deserve respect. . . We have noticed violations of domestic and foreign laws. ” In any reform, he concludes, “let’s start with dignity, from a position where we respect everyone’s humanity, and leave politics aside. “