THAT’S SERVICE: ASYLUM SEEKERS FAST-TRACKED
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump says he has ended “catch and release” for asylum seekers, but in cities on the US border with Mexico it is catch and can’t release fast enough.
Since late October, the US has been releasing asylum-seeking families so quickly they don’t even have time to make travel arrangements, which it blames on lack of detention space.
Families are often given court dates without even having to pass initial screenings by asylum officers. They end up in shelters run by charities, or are dropped off at bus stations in border cities.
For one Salvadoran family that dizzying series of events began when their 7-year-old daughter, Yariza Flores, landed on barbed wire after being hoisted over a border fence during their illegal crossing last month. She was rushed to a San Diego hospital to stop profuse bleeding.
Just four days later, US authorities dropped her off at a San Diego shelter with her parents and 3-yearold brother. They had no money, the clothes on their backs and an order given to them during their stint in US custody to appear in immigration court in Houston, where they planned to live with Yariza’s grandmother and two aunts. They didn’t even have time to arrange for relatives to buy bus tickets before they were released.
“I feel happy because we’re finally here, we’re finally going to see my family,” the girl’s mother, Tania Escobar, said in the shelter dining hall after a meal of shredded chicken, rice and beans.
Her daughter sat nearby, all smiles, wearing a silver crown that a border patrol agent gave her and holding a stuffed animal from a doctor who treated the severe cuts on her lower back.
From California to Arizona to Texas, volunteers are scrambling to help families until they can arrange transportation to relatives across the US. The country’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) often co-ordinates with these shelters. On the December night that Yariza arrived, ICE brought 125 people in buses that came every half-hour. One night during Christmas week, the facility received 180 people, forcing it to use a church for the overflow.
Many asylum-seeking families are being released in the US before even they are ready. ICE dropped off hundreds of people daily at a bus station in El Paso, Texas, over the holidays. In Tucson, Arizona, charities have rented motel rooms when shelters are full.
ICE began shortening custody stays on October 23 in response to the growing numbers of families crossing from Mexico. Officials say ICE previously ensured that families had travel plans first, but that it’s not legally required to do so.
“After decades of inaction by Congress, the government remains severely constrained in its ability to detain and promptly remove families with no legal basis to remain in the US,” said ICE spokesperson Sarah Rodriguez. “As a result, family units continue to cross the border at high volumes and are likely to continue to do so, as they face no consequence for their actions.”
At the San Diego shelter, asylumseeking families, largely from Guatemala and Honduras, are asked about their health at the front door. A mobile clinic in the parking lot tends to people with sore throats, dehydration, vomiting, fevers and other ailments.
Once inside, a large room manned by volunteers resembles a busy travel agency. Families lined up at rows of tables tell shelter workers their plans and get help calling family to pay for travel. A whiteboard in the corner marks progress buying tickets to New York, Nashville, Austin, Texas, and other cities across the US. Volunteers shuttle as many as they can to a bus station or airport to make room for the next night’s arrivals.
Shelter organisers say it costs $350 000 (R4.9 million) a month to operate the facility, which provides food, showers, cots, clothing and sometimes travel expenses.