More names added to wait lists at border
Mexico says 40K migrants are on hold at the border
TIJUANA, Mexico — The Cameroonian men who share 10 mattresses in a third-floor apartment above a barber shop walk every morning to the busiest U.S. border crossing with Mexico, hoping that it will be their lucky day to claim asylum in the United States. Their unlikely bet is that a sympathetic Mexican official will find a spot for them.
“I go because, if they open up, I’m in,” said Rashidou Hdzekasaah, 35, who has been in Tijuana for two months and still has more than 6,000 names ahead of him on a waiting list to claim asylum at the San Diego crossing.
English-speaking Cameroonians fleeing atrocities of their Frenchspeaking government helped push Tijuana’s asylum wait list to 10,000 on Sunday, up from 4,800 just three months earlier. At the same time, the U.S. is returning more Central Americans to Mexico to wait for dates in U.S. immigration court, putting asylum seekers in a prolonged period of uncertainty.
Based on Mexican government figures and reporting by the Associated Press, at least 40,000 migrants who have reached the U.S. border with Mexico are on a waiting list for an initial attempt to seek asylum or waiting for a court hearing in the U.S. after being sent back.
This is a dramatic increase from earlier in the year. It is unknown how many have entered the U.S. illegally, decided to settle in Mexico or gone back to Central America.
Long waits are testing the patience of some asylum seekers and residents in border cities.
More than 100 Cameroonians blocked government immigration vans last month, demanding more transparency about who gets accepted from the wait list to request asylum. It came after several days on which the U.S. accepted no claims. People getting called now have been in Tijuana about 3½ months, but the wait is expected to lengthen.
Turning Mexico into a waiting room for U.S. asylum seekers may be the Trump administration’s most forceful response yet to migrants seeking humanitarian protection.