Zero-tolerance policy impacts New Mexico
Families separated, but number crossing illegally has dropped
SANTA TERESA — The New Mexico border region is the backdrop for the President Trump administration’s zerotolerance policy that has separated hundreds of children from their parents in recent weeks.
In the past, most parents caught crossing the border in El Paso and New Mexico illegally who had no prior deportations or criminal charges were released with ankle monitors and allowed to remain with their children while their cases moved through the immigration courts.
Part of the reason for that tactic was a court settlement that barred the government from holding kids in detention centers longer than 20 days, even with their families.
Now, because the zero-tolerance policy calls for detaining everyone crossing illegally — regardless of whether it is their first time — parents are locked up and the children are placed in the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS has had to set up temporary shelters, including several tents in Tornillo, Texas, for teenage boys to make room for younger kids at other shelters. The shelters are not considered detention centers.
New Mexico does not have any of its own shelters, so children crossing with parents in New Mexico are sent to shelters across the country.
There is no limit to how long HHS can retain custody of children although the average stay is about 50 days before children are placed with a sponsor. The federal government is required to choose family members as sponsors whenever possible, even if those relatives are undocumented.
The El Paso Border Patrol sector, which includes all of New Mexico, apprehended 7,401 people between Octo-
ber 2016 through May 2017. From October 2017 through May 2018, the number has fallen by 35 percent to 4,765, according to the federal government.
At the same time, there’s been a surge in families arriving at ports of entry in the region, most seeking asylum, from 4,996 in 2017 to 9,514, according to numbers just released from Customs and Border Protection.
The number of asylum seekers has overwhelmed CBP, and officers have been posted in the middle of international bridges and border crossing to screen people as they enter the U.S. to ask for asylum.
On Tuesday, officers were questioning nearly every parent with a child and asking them to show documents before proceeding to the official immigration checkpoint. Some Central American families have been turned away and asked to come back another day.
“Port of Entry facilities were not designed to hold hundreds of people at a time who may be seeking asylum,” said Roger Maier, a CBP spokesman in El Paso, in an emailed statement.
Immigrant rights organizations have said the delay in allowing people to cross the border is another effort to deter asylum seekers.
“No one is being denied the opportunity to make a claim of credible fear or seek asylum,” Maier said. “CBP officers allow more people into our facilities for processing once space becomes available or other factors allow for additional parties to arrive.”
Many asylum seekers are released while their cases move through immigration court. But asylum seekers who arrive without children increasingly are sent to detention centers.
Seeking asylum
While typically asylum seekers with children are not detained, there are reports of cases in which families seeking asylum are separated.
In at least one case, an asylum seeker crossing into New Mexico was detained and separated from a child long before the zero-tolerance policy. Maria Vandelice de Bastos showed up at the Santa Teresa border crossing with her 16-year-old disabled grandson seeking asylum 10 months ago. She hasn’t seen him since.
“She is devastated,” said immigration attorney Eduardo Beckett, who represents the 54-year-old grandmother from Brazil.
She remains in a detention center in El Paso waiting for a ruling on her asylum case from an immigration judge. Her grandson Matheus — who has severe epilepsy, neurological problems and is autistic — is at a facility in Connecticut.
“... This is what we call the criminalization of the asylum process, in my opinion, from what I’m seeing on the ground,” Beckett said.
He said Vandelice de Bastos fled her native Brazil after getting death threats when she complained about conditions at her grandson’s school that led to the firing of the principal.
“The principal happened to have a brother who was a cop, and he showed up at her doorstep,” Beckett said.
Immigrant advocacy organizations and human rights groups say the increasingly harsh measures on the border are designed to deter families seeking a safe haven in the U.S.
“This didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen in the last year, it has been such an evolution of border enforcement policies,” said Johana Bencomo, community organizer for NM CAFÉ, a faith-based organization in Las Cruces.
Vandelice de Bastos’ attorney said the message from the Trump administration for families arriving on the border these days is clear.
“Don’t come here,” Beckett said. “Don’t apply for asylum. Go home.”
Hundreds protest
New Mexicans were among hundreds of demonstrators who showed up outside the El Paso Immigration Detention Center on Tuesday for a protest against family separation. The protest was organized by the Border Network for Human Rights. Protesters also chanted “free the children” outside the nearby Border Patrol Headquarters.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the controversial zero-tolerance policy.
“The border is being overrun by those who have no right to cross it,” she said.
“As long as illegal entry remains a criminal offense, DHS will no longer look the other way,” Nielsen said.
The other alternative is “just let the entire family walk, in which case you’re very unlikely to see them again if they don’t have a valid claim,” said Ira Melman, a spokesman for Americans for Immigration Reform, an organization that advocates for a tighter border controls and lower levels of legal immigration. “They’re just going to game the system.”