RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Migrants and activists are living with uncertainty in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez following the recent order by a U.S. judge to reinstate the controversial “Remain in Mexico” program, which forced migrants to remain in Mexico while applying for asylum.
Last Friday, a federal judge in Texas ordered the White House to reactivate the controversial Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) or “Remain in Mexico,” instituted in 2019 by then-President Donald Trump.
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The judge’s decision gives Joe Biden’s government seven days to appeal the ruling or, otherwise, put the MPP back in place.
And it comes in the midst of a wave of migration to the United States, a country that detained 212,672 undocumented immigrants at its southern border this July, the highest number in 20 years.
FEAR IN CIUDAD JUAREZ
The news of this court order has spread like wildfire in the shelters for migrants in the border city of Ciudad Juarez in the northern state of Chihuahua, which are practically full.
Therefore, if this measure is approved, the outlook is discouraging and would increase the demand for food and shelter by migrants and asylum seekers, needs that are barely covered by civil society.
“I am afraid to stay here because of the dangers of the cartels. There are good people, but you don’t know, and I’m afraid to talk to other people. I have had nightmares where I dream that we are kidnapped or killed,” Salvadoran Graciela Arrieta told Efe agency on Wednesday.
This 27-year-old teacher crossed into the United States a few weeks ago with her son and husband at the McAllen, Texas border but was deported and has been in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez for the past nine days, where she will try to cross again.
“It was too risky a road to go to the United States, one also exposes the life of the children and one’s own life because one does not know what one is facing”, declared the woman, who explained that during the journey, they were kidnapped. Their relatives had to pay their ransom.
UNBREAKABLE DREAMS
Another of these situations is the one experienced by Guatemalan Magda Catalina Gómez, 33 years old, who does not give up her American dream despite the journey’s difficulties.
“For me, it is a hope to be here, my goal is to reach the United States. In my country, I was a small businesswoman, but there is a lot of crime. I covered the rent for two gangs of criminals who demanded money to let me work, and I had to close,” explained this woman, who left two daughters in her country of origin and travels with her youngest son.
DANGERS AND OBSTACLES
According to official data, more than 13,000 people who remained in Mexico under the MPP program have already been accompanied to the United States to continue their paperwork, but the process continues for many more.
Ismael Martinez, director of the Pan de Vida shelter, assured that this proposal to return to the MPP program is a nightmare for migrants.
“There are still MPP people waiting for the process, and it is difficult for them. It is difficult with food, clothing, and cleaning supplies in the shelters,” he said.
He specified that they currently have 200 migrants in the shelter, but there are times when it has provided shelter for 460.
“Biden promised in the campaign that migrants would have better opportunities, and in a way, he has delivered, but it is already too many people. Refugees are at a lot of risk. They are extorted, they come running because of the violence, and here they go through the same thing,” said the activist, who currently has three families in his shelter under the “Stay in Mexico” program.
INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS
Oscar Chacón, executive director of the NGO Alianza Américas, wanted migrants to be informed that their rights are not violated and mentioned that U.S. immigration policy has been disappointing for several terms.
“They continue to treat the displacement of people as if it were cancer, something absolutely harmful, something to be removed. With this decision (of the federal judge), what is opened is a wider flank for the serious violation of the human rights of migrants, including Mexicans,” he declared.
In this context, he regretted that Mexico and other countries of the region act as “gendarmes” of the United States in migratory matters, especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the so-called Title 42, which is still in force in the United States and allows immediate deportation using the health emergency as a justification.
On the contrary, Chacón affirmed that there is no evidence that migrants are a factor in the spread of covid-19.
“There is overcrowding in refugee camps in Mexico, there could be health challenges, but they are not a factor in the serious transmission of covid-19. I hope they reverse the judge’s decision because it went against one of Biden’s first executive orders when he took office,” he concluded in relation to the end of the MPP program.