Move to dangerous desert crossings
Increasing numbers of Guatemalan families trying to enter the US illegally are avoiding the most popular routes in favour of more dangerous remote desert crossings like those used by the two children who died last month in Border Patrol custody, officials say.
Most people trying to sneak into the country still use longestablished routes in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. But recently released government figures show a growing number of families crossing along the 430km stretch of border known as the El Paso Sector, which includes western Texas and all of New Mexico.
In November, the US Border Patrol in that sector caught 11,617 people travelling in families – nearly 20 times the total in November 2017 and just over a fifth of all migrants apprehended on the southern border. Most of those families were from Guatemala.
Kevin McAleenan, the US Customs and Border Protection commissioner, said this week that the increase in migrant families was creating an ‘‘unprecedented crisis.’’ From December 22 to December 30 along the entire border with Mexico, the Border Patrol has referred 451 migrants – including 259 children, about half of them under 5 – to medical providers.
‘‘Many were ill before they departed their homes,’’ McAleenan said, citing cases of flu, pneumonia, tuberculosis and parasites.
Six children and 11 adults have been hospitalised.
Officials did not say how many of the medical referrals were in the El Paso sector.
The area has been a focal point in the debate over illegal immigration since 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin died at an El Paso hospital December 8, two days after crossing in New Mexico and being taken into Border Patrol custody with her father, who remains at a shelter awaiting results of an autopsy.
He has said through his lawyers that he cared for his daughter during their journey and that she was not ill before they got to the US.
Two weeks later, on December 24, 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo died in New Mexico after being apprehended at the border with his father and spending six days among at least four crowded holding facilities. An autopsy showed that he had the flu.
McAleenan said the two cases are the only deaths of children in Border Patrol custody in more than a decade.
Teams from the US Coast Guard and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention were sent to the border this week to assist in medical screenings and recommend measures to limit illnesses in Border Patrol holding areas in El Paso.
Immigrant rights advocates blamed the new, more dangerous crossing patterns largely on increased enforcement in more frequently travelled areas and efforts by the Trump administration to discourage people from entering at official border crossings to seek asylum.
‘‘When you start interfering with a migration pattern, you better be prepared to deal with the consequences,’’ said Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, which has been sheltering migrants in El Paso and coordinating shelters in New Mexico.