Jose Maria Garcia Lara won a call asking if his shelter had room for a dozen Venezuelan migrants who were among the first deported to Mexico, a broader U. S. policy that denies the right to seek asylum.
“We can’t take anyone, no one is coming back,” he replied, standing amid rows of tents in what looks like a small warehouse. It had 260 migrants on the ground, about 80 with overcapacity and the most since the shelter opened in 2012. .
Thursday’s phone call illustrates how the Biden administration’s extension of asylum restrictions on Venezuelans poses a potentially huge challenge to Mexico’s already overburdened shelters.
Usa. The U. S. government agreed to allow up to 24,000 Venezuelans to apply online to fly directly to the U. S. It also began sending back to Mexico by crossing illegally, a number that reached 33,000 in September alone.
The United States has deported Venezuelans to Tijuana and 4 other Mexican borders since Wednesday, said Jeremy MacGillivray, deputy director of the United Nations International Organization for Migration in Mexico. The others are Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Piedras Negras and Matamoros.
The Casa del Migrante in Matamoros admitted at least 120 Venezuelans from Brownsville on Thursday, said the shelter’s Rev. Francisco Gallardo. On Friday, the Mexican presented individual bus trips to Mexico City.
Venezuelans suddenly have the most vital nationality moment at the US border after Mexicans, a tough challenge for President Joe Biden. Nearly 4 in 5 who were arrested by the US government in August entered or near Eagle Pass, Texas, across from Piedras Negras, a Mexican town of about 150,000 plus people with few accommodations.
“We are on the verge of collapse,” said Edgar Rodriguez Izquierdo, a lawyer with the Casa del Migrante in Piedras Negras, which feeds another 500 people a day and turns a school into a shelter for another 150 people.
Tijuana, where Garcia Lara runs the Juventud 2000 shelter, is the largest city on the Mexican border and has maximum space. The city says 26 shelters, which are operating nearby or entirely, can accommodate about 4500 migrants combined.
Tijuana’s largest shelter, Embajadores de Jesús, houses 1400 migrants in bunk beds and mats, while an organization affiliated with the University of California, San Diego is building an annex for thousands more.
Ambassadors of Jesus grows at breakneck speed at the rear of a canyon where roosters roam freely and plywood and aluminum huts line dirt roads and cracked sidewalks that flood gently when it rains. A concrete block construction with a kitchen and dining room is nearing completion, as migrants shovel dirt for a soccer field.
Gustavo Banda, like other shelter managers in Tijuana, doesn’t know what to expect from the U. S. arrival in Venezuela, reflecting an air of uncertainty along the border with Mexico. caravan in 2018 and the implementation in 2019 of a now-outdated policy of making asylum seekers wait in Mexico for hearings before the U. S. Immigration Court. U. S.
“Nobody knows what’s going to happen until they start firing other people,” Banda said Thursday as families with young children prepared for sleep.
Mexico’s foreign ministry said it would temporarily admit “some” Venezuelans deported from the United States under a public fitness order known as Title 42, indicating a numerical limit. The United States has deported migrants more than 2. 3 million times since Title 42 went into effect in March 2020, denying them asylum on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
A Mexican official said Mexico’s ability to recover Venezuelans depends on the area of accommodation and that the good fortune of the United States is that the offer of transience is maintained for up to 24,000 Venezuelans. The official has no right to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Until now, Mexico accepted returns from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, in addition to Mexico. As a result, Mexican shelters have been filled with migrants from those countries, as well as Haitians.
Venezuelans, like those of other nationalities, including Cuba and Nicaragua, have sometimes been released in the United States to pursue immigration cases. Strained diplomatic relations have meant that Biden’s management is about to send them back to Venezuela.
Blas Nuñez-Neto, a senior official at the U. S. Department of Homeland Security. The U. S. government did not respond when asked Thursday how many Venezuelans would likely be deported to Mexico, saying only that it expects fewer people to cross the border.
Homeland Security said Venezuelans who cross the border by land after Wednesday’s announcement will be deported. Edward Pimentel among the migrants who said they were returned despite being detained in the United States before the policy was announced.
“The fact is that our dream is the American dream, we were looking to move to the United States,” Pimentel said outside a Tijuana convenience store.
In Matamoros, many Venezuelans protested, saying they had entered the United States before the policy went into effect. Gregori Josue Segovia, 22, said he tried through the U. S. government Monday in El Paso, Texas, and moved before ending up in Matamoros.
“We were on 3 buses and they didn’t tell us anything, but we thought everything in general when we knew we were on the (international) bridge” to be sent back to Mexico, he said Friday.
Some 7 million Venezuelans have fled their homeland in recent years, but much of it has moved away from the United States. The United States has a relatively strong economy and little chance of being sent back to Venezuela, which makes it suddenly more attractive.
For Venezuelans in Mexico, their best hope is a U. S. waiver. Title 42 for those considered vulnerable.
In Tijuana, it appears that more migrants are receiving such waivers from the U. S. Department of Homeland Security. U. S. The U. S. They receive about 150 migrants a day at a border crossing into San Diego, said Enrique Lucero, Tijuana’s director of immigration affairs.
Many are selected through Tijuana’s shelter defense teams, forcing some migrants to settle there for a place to stay, but have a greater chance of being chosen to enter the United States, Lucero said.
Ambassadors of Jesus helps carry a pocket book with the names of migrants in hopes of taking advantage of a name exemption 42. Banda, a pastor and shelter director, said they waited about 3 months to enter the United States.
Venezuelans who were in Mexico before Wednesday can also apply for one of the 24,000 transitional spaces that the U. S. has created. United States and pay for their flights.
Mexico welcomed statements by U. S. officials that transitional aid provided to Ukrainians and now Venezuelans could increase to other nationalities.
Orlando Sanchez slept at a bus station in Mexico City with many other Venezuelans hoping to get cash from their families. He said he didn’t have enough for a flight.
Naile Luna, a Venezuelan on her way to Ciudad Juarez across the border from El Paso, said she hoped being 8 months pregnant would save her from deportation to Mexico. He said he knew nothing about the new policy.
___
Verza reported in México. La Associated Press editor Gisela Salomon in Miami and cameraman Jordi Lebrija in Tijuana contributed to this report.
Top headlines via email, mornings of the week
Get the top Union-Tribune headlines in your inbox Monday through Friday mornings, adding the most sensitive news, local, sports, commercial, entertainment and opinion.
You may get promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Privacy PolicyTerms of UseSubscribe to our newsletters
To follow