By Valerie González and Elliot Spagat – The Associated Press
Abigail Castillo was about to cross the US border illegally when she heard that President Joe Biden was stopping asylum. Anyway, she continued, walking for hours through the mountains east of San Diego with her young son, hoping it wasn’t too late.
“I heard that they were going to do it or that they were finalizing it,” Castillo, 35, said Wednesday as she and her son were escorted to a Border Patrol van with about two dozen other people from Brazil, Ecuador and his town in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, which he said he left due to the violence that plagues it.
They had missed the deadline and were now subject to the new deportation rule.
Their sense of uncertainty prevailed among many migrants after Biden invoked presidential powers to halt asylum processing when apprehensions for illegal crossings exceed 2,500 in a day. The measure went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday because that threshold was met.
Two high-ranking officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that The first deportations under the new rule were carried out on Wednesday, although they did not say how many people were deported. The officials spoke to reporters on the condition that their names not be used, in accordance with regulations.
Sergio Franco, holding his baby after a nearly two-month trip from Ecuador with his family, walking through the dangerous Darien region on the Colombia-Panama border, said he was confident he would prevail in his plea to find a safe haven in the United States.
“As long as we have enough evidence, there would be no problem,” he commented as he got into the truck with Castillo and the others.
[Migrantes temen por su vida y su futuro ante las limitaciones al asilo ordenadas por Biden]
As the group walked away, several migrants from India approached the same dusty area near a gun store in the town of Dulzura, one of several that have sprung up in the last year on the remote rural outskirts of San Diego for migrants. migrants to surrender to Border Patrol agents. There was no water or bathrooms and little shade.
Several Guatemalan women arrived later. Among them was Arelis Alonzo López, who said she was almost five months pregnant and had walked for two nights. A Border Patrol agent asked her how she felt, to which she responded that she couldn’t take it anymore.
The asylum remains suspended until average daily arrests fall below 1,500 for a week in a row. The last month in which crossings were this low for this long was July 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Migrants who express fear for their safety if deported will be evaluated by U.S. asylum officials, but under a higher standard than what is currently in effect. If they pass, they can remain to seek other forms of humanitarian protection, including those set out in the UN Convention Against Torture.
There are serious doubts about whether the new measure will be able to stop large-scale migrant entries. Mexico has agreed to readmit non-Mexican migrants, but only a limited number and nationalities. And the Biden administration does not have the money or diplomatic support it needs to deport migrants long distances, including to Ecuador and India.
In Matamoros, Mexico, which borders Brownsville, Texas, Esmeralda Castro, a native of El Salvador, feared that the suspension of asylum would prompt more people to compete for the 1,450 slots granted daily to enter legally through the overloaded online application. from Customs and Border Protection, known as CBP One. Castro, 40, said he has tried for nine months to get an appointment using the app.
“Imagine what they have done because the system is going to collapse again,” added Castro, speaking in a migrant camp near the shore of the Rio Grande where he has been living with 10 other people. The app has become so saturated at times that users received error messages and experienced other technical glitches.
Juan Daniel Medina, from the Dominican Republic, added that he was determined to keep trying with the CBP One app, even after eight months of unsuccessful attempts to get an appointment.
[“Esperemos en Dios que reflexione”, migrantes responden a acción ejecutiva de Biden]
“It’s the right way because this way they make everything legal, they don’t have to jump the river and they don’t have to be charged,” said Medina, 30 years old.
Two hours before sunset on Tuesday in San Diego, four buses full of migrants were dropped off by Border Patrol agents at a transit center, so that most of the migrants could seek asylum in one of the 68 immigration courts. of all country. Asylum seekers are generally able to work while their processes move slowly through overcrowded immigration courts.
Jesús Gómez, a native of Medellín, Colombia, said Border Patrol agents told him that he was one of the last people to be released to seek asylum and that he should tell friends and family back home that they will be deported if they try to enter again. illegal way. He commented that he didn’t know if it was true.
“It’s a very difficult thing to handle,” said Gómez, 49, as he waited for his wife to be released by Border Patrol and then fly to Boston, where his daughter lives.
