Many asylum-seekers still in limbo
For the past year, I have been involved with an organization that works at the border camp in Matamoros, Mexico, right across from Brownsville.
I have been into the camp many times. Many of the individuals we are working with are from Central America and were part of the Migration Protection Protocol, or MPP, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy.
Due to the change in administrations, many of these individuals have been allowed to enter the U.S. to go through the asylum process. In fact, just recently some of our good friends from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were finally able to cross the border.
This is a wonderful development and will save the lives of many people. However, there are certain people who do not qualify to enter and were never able to join the MPP program, perhaps most notably a small group of Mexican families that have been waiting at the camp for over a year.
Most of the Mexican families I have met are from the area of Guerrero and are fleeing the cartel violence that plagues their region. The story of one family we work with is hard to even comprehend. The young son found the father’s mutilated body, and the son is now facing a mental health crisis.
On top of all this, they have to live in filthy conditions and insecurity.
Another family fleeing the extortion of cartels came to the camp only to have their 15-year-old daughter raped by a cartel member.
In yet another family, the wife does not know if her husband is alive as she has not heard from him in more than a year. In another family, the son is facing night terrors from all he has seen while living in the camp. He is a U.S. citizen — he showed me his passport — but cannot enter the U.S. without leaving his family behind.
These individuals are blocked from entering the U.S. due to the Donald Trump-era policy called Title 42 that restricted border crossings based on COVID-19 concerns. This has continued under the Biden administration. So even though the administration has officially ended the Remain in Mexico policy, it has in some ways warped into another form of that policy. New asylum-seekers from Central America and the original asylum-seekers of Mexican descent are forced to remain in Mexico.
It is being reported by those in the camp that because most of those under MPP are now allowed to enter the U.S., the Mexican government will close the camp. This might put many of these individuals in even more precarious situations.
It is vital we ensure these individuals are allowed to enter just like their fellow camp members who are from Central America. It is also deeply important that we end Title 42 right now. We are the hot spot for COVID-19. We should not use COVID-19 as an excuse to keep people in horrific conditions and deny them the basic human right of seeking asylum. It is time for us to raise our voices and act. There have been some positive changes, but there is much more work to do.