Biden’s asylum halt is falling hardest on Mexicans and other nationalities Mexico will take

NOGALES, Mexico — Ana Ruiz was appalled to see migrants from some countries released into the United States with orders to appear in immigration court, while she and other Mexicans were deported on an hour-long bus ride to the nearest border crossing.

“They are giving priority to other countries,” Ruiz, 35, after a tearful phone call to family in the southern state of Chiapas at the San Juan Bosco migrant shelter. The shelter’s director says it is receiving about 100 deportees a day, more than double what it was seeing before President Joe Biden issued an executive order which suspends asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border when arrests for illegal crossing occur 2,500 per day.

The asylum freeze, which came into effect on June 5 and has led to a 40% drop in arrests illegal crossings apply to all nationalities. But it will hit hardest those most vulnerable to deportation – particularly Mexicans and others whom Mexico wants to accept (Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans). Lack of money for it charter flights, Sour diplomatic ties and other operational challenges make it more difficult to deport people to many countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the U.S. is working with countries around the world to take in more of their deported citizens. He mentioned challenges in the field of diplomatic relations and the speed with which travel documents are produced.

“The reality is it’s easier to remove individuals to certain countries than it is to remove individuals to other countries,” he said in an interview Wednesday in Tucson, Ariz. “We remove individuals to Senegal, we remove individuals to Colombia, we remove individuals to India. It can be more difficult.”

Mexicans were responsible for 38% of border arrests in May, up from 85% in 2011, but still by far the highest nationality. The Tucson Border Patrol sector was the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings last year. Last month, nearly three in four arrests were of Mexicans, which helps explain why the asylum ban has had more of an impact in Arizona. U.S. authorities say the seven-day average of daily arrests in the Tucson sector fell below 600 this week, down from just under 1,200 on June 2.

Border agents in Arizona have been severely tested since late 2022 by nationalities that are difficult to deport – first from Cuba and later Mauritania, Guinea and Senegal. Many cross near Lukeville, about a four-hour bus ride to a large processing center in Tucson.

Many Mexicans cross the border illegally, much closer to Tucson in Nogales, Arizona, some by climbing over a wall using ladders of material at a belt factory on the Mexican side before disappearing into homes and businesses in seconds. Others present themselves to border agents to request asylum, entering through holes in the wall that are being filled. On Tuesday, a group of 49 mostly Mexican migrants waited for agents.

Some are taken to the Border Patrol station in Nogales, where they can be held for up to six days if they express fear of being deported under the asylum freeze and seek similar forms of protection that would allow them to stay but come with a much higher bar. such as the UN Convention against Torture.

Most are being taken to a cluster of giant white tents near Tucson International Airport, which opened in April 2021 to accommodate unaccompanied children. It now holds 1,000 people, including single adults and families, who sleep on foam mattresses or raised beds.

On Tuesday, about a dozen people who said they feared deportation sat on couches in a cavernous room to hear instructions about the screening interview, which includes a four-hour period to call lawyers or others to prepare. They were then directed to one of sixteen soundproof telephone booths.

The Tucson processing center didn’t even conduct screenings before Biden’s asylum ended. That resulted in more migrants being released with orders to appear in U.S. immigration court, a practice that has sharply declined in recent weeks. The screenings by asylum employees take approximately 90 minutes by telephone.

Many migrants who fail interviews are deported to Nogales, a sprawling city in the Mexican state of Sonora. end in San Juan Bosco, where a gigantic fan in a former chapel provides relief from the sweltering summer heat.

Francisco Loureiro, who runs the shelter in a rough hillside neighborhood, said word has spread among Mexicans that they will be deported if they surrender to officers to seek asylum and that more will try to avoid being captured . He said a deported migrant accepted a smuggler’s offer outside the shelter on Tuesday to try to cross undetected.

Ruiz said she was not given a chance to explain to an asylum official that she feared returning to Mexico because of cartel violence. “They were very direct yes-or-no questions. You couldn’t explain why you were scared,” she said.

Mayorkas said complaints about the screening predate Biden’s order in June.

“I have confidence in our officers and officers that they are adhering to the guidelines, that our guidelines are strong and that we have the expertise for individuals who are manifesting fear,” he said.

Anahi Sandoval, 30, said she tried to avoid capture after crossing the border in Nogales and being abandoned in the desert by her smuggler. She said she fled Chiapas after she and her husband, who owned a door and window company, refused to be extorted by gangs; her husband was murdered and she left her daughter in the care of a relative.

“The Colombians get a passing grade, but the Mexicans don’t,” said Sandoval, who failed her screening interview. “It makes me angry.”

Araceli Martinez, 32, said she is afraid of returning home with her 14-year-old daughter to a physically abusive husband, but no one asked her and she didn’t know to ask until she on a bus to Mexico. Previously, Border Patrol agents had to ask migrants if they were afraid to return home. Under the new rules, migrants must ask unsolicited questions or show obvious signs of fear, such as crying.

Martinez wanted to spread a message to others: “People think there is asylum, but there is not.”