Migrant caravans restart as pandemic deepens the humanitarian crisis at the
US-Mexico border
October 6, 2020 8.20am EDT
Author
Katrina Burgess
Associate Professor of Political Economy, Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy, Tufts University
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A migrant carrying a toddler on her back stands in front of the border wall
that divideThe pandemic and anti-immigration policies haven't stopped
migration from Members of a U.S.-bound migrant caravan from Honduras have
been detained in Guatemala and deported before they could reach Mexico.
Though their journey was cut short, the formation of a new caravan reveals
that - as in 2018 and 2019 - Central Americans are still fleeing violence,
hunger and climate change en masse.
The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border also persists despite the coronavirus
drawing media attention toward other matters. As a scholar of Mexican
migration, I have watched the pandemic create new hardships for immigrants
while giving the Trump administration leeway to impose further restrictions
on the rights of migrants and asylum-seekers.
The result is a continuation of dehumanizing and dangerous conditions on the
border, with less public scrutiny than ever.
Crisis at the border
During my research for a 2019 documentary, "Waylaid in Tijuana," I observed
firsthand the difficult conditions facing thousands of migrants and
asylum-seekers who were stranded at the U.S.-Mexico border well before the
pandemic.
Under international and domestic law, the United States must offer asylum to
people with a "well-founded fear" of persecution based on their political
beliefs, racial or ethnic background, religion or other special
characteristics that make them a target for violence.
But in April 2018, the Trump administration began "metering" asylum-seekers
by requiring that they get on a waiting list for their initial appointment
with U.S. officials. By August 2019, 25,000 people were on the list, mostly
in Tijuana. In February 2020, just before the global pandemic was declared,
15,000 people were still waiting.
Nine months after metering began, the Trump administration introduced the
Migration Protection Protocols, which require asylum-seekers who pass their
initial interview to return to Mexico to wait for each subsequent court
hearing. By March 2020, over 65,000 asylum-seekers had been returned to
Mexico, mostly through ports of entry in Texas.
Under pressure from the Trump administration, the Mexican government acceded
to this policy, giving asylum-seekers the right to wait for their interview
in Mexico. Migrants in the caravans that arrived in late 2018 and early 2019
were also given a special work permit.
A family stands in the rain under umbrellas and tarps, behind a school bus
Hondurans, part of a U.S.-bound migrant caravan, outside a migrant shelter
in San Marcos, Guatemala, on Oct. 3. Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty Images
But the Mexican government has since drastically curtailed these permits,
and today's migrants receive almost no government support. The lucky ones
find food and lodging at a church-run migrant shelter, an informal job
waiting tables or working construction and access to health care and legal
counsel through local or U.S.-based nonprofit organizations.
Most migrants are not so lucky. Shelters cannot keep up with the demand,
leaving thousands on the streets or in tent camps with no plumbing or
electricity, especially along the Texas border. Asylum-seekers outside the
shelters rarely have access to social assistance or legal counsel.
Asylum-seekers are also targeted by criminals and local police for
extortion, mugging, kidnapping and assault - adding another layer of trauma
to the violence suffered back home and along their journey. During the
interviews with asylum-seekers conducted for "Waylaid in Tijuana," my
colleagues and I could see the fear and anxiety in their body language.
Barred by the pandemic
These two policies - the metering system and the Migration Protection
Protocols - had vastly reduced Central American migrants' chances of gaining
asylum in the U.S. even before the pandemic. As of August 2020, only 570 of
the 44,000 asylum-seekers sent back to Mexico whose cases had been decided
were granted refuge in the U.S. That's an approval rate of 1.3%, compared
with 21% in 2018 for asylum-seekers from El Salvador, Honduras and
Guatemala.
The pandemic has now enabled the Trump administration to effectively end
asylum as an avenue for Central Americans to legally enter the United
States.
In March 2020 the Department of Homeland Security closed the waiting lists
for asylum interviews and suspended asylum hearings. The Trump
administration also invoked Title 42, a little-used rule of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention intended to prevent the spread of infectious
disease, to expel all migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border immediately
and without the hearing to which many of them would normally be entitled.
Under this rule, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has turned away more than
147,000 people since March, over the objections of top scientists. Most of
the migrants, including non-Mexicans, are stuck in Mexico.
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That puts even more pressure on Mexico's already overextended shelters, many
of which stopped taking new residents or closed down completely when the
pandemic hit.
And with much of Mexico's economy on lockdown, jobs are nearly impossible to
find. A recent International Labor Organization report finds Mexico lost
10.4 million informal jobs during the first two months of the pandemic,
particularly in areas like hospitality and construction that used to employ
migrants.
A woman sweeps the concrete floor amid rows of tents
An asylum-seeker cleans up at the Juventud 2000 migrant shelter in Tijuana,
Mexico, on April 3. Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Image
Dual crises
Despite the obvious health risks, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol continues
to require that migrants check in regularly at ports of entry to keep their
asylum cases active. Yet pandemic restrictions mean U.S.-based aid workers
and lawyers are unable to cross the border to help their clients.
Mexico, like the U.S., is struggling to contain COVID-19; over 81,000 people
have died of the disease. Many asylum-seekers waiting at the border cannot
practice social distancing in crowded encampments or apartments and have
nowhere to turn if they get sick.
Hunger, sickness, violence and generally dangerous conditions in Central
America mean many asylum-seekers will brave the obvious health risks at the
U.S.-Mexico border rather than return home. And others, like the migrants in
the new Honduran caravan, will continue to flee.
The U.S. asylum system has been crippled by politics and the pandemic while
the humanitarian crisis at the border continues.
