Author’s Note: This is the third post in a series of reflections from the borderlands. Notice the changes in policy from 2016 to 2018 and 2019. To read Part 1, go to: http://bit.ly/2UJ1YsD. To read the Caravan edition, go to: http://bit.ly/31Zn7R2
Last spring I visited Laredo, Texas, where I volunteered at two immigrant welcome shelters. We were not yet seeing the affects of MPP, or Remain in Mexico, in Laredo.
We were told that Nuevo Laredo, on the other side of the river, is controlled by cartels, so almost no immigrants cross the border there. However, nearby McAllen and Eagle Pass were seeing so many new arrivals that ICE was transporting busloads of migrants to Laredo after their release from la hielera. These were not Greyhound buses, but rather prison buses with bars on the windows. Asylum seekers had everything taken from them at the border, including their identification papers, belts, toothbrushes, and shoelaces. Everything. The first words we heard from some of the people we met were, “Do you have a toothbrush? I haven’t brushed my teeth in four days.”
After suffering such indignities, parents and children arrived at the Greyhound station in Laredo, where we greeted them with smiles and a friendly welcome. We drove them to one of the shelters, where several wonderful things happened. First we gave them snacks and water. Then we helped them call their relatives or friends who were sponsoring them in the U.S. to arrange for them to buy bus tickets to join them. Some relatives also wanted to send cash for the continuing journey, which we helped them do.
Guests were allowed to choose new changes of clothes, from donations we had previously sorted and organized. They got to shower, washing away the layers of dirt and evil that had been laid upon them on their journeys. When the guests emerged from the showers wearing clean clothes and having brushed their teeth for the first time in days, they were transformed. They were smiling, beautiful, and at peace.
Volunteers cooked and served dinner, and we drove many of the guests back to the bus station that same night to make the trip to join their relatives, sending them with prayers, snacks, and toiletries for their journeys. Many others stayed overnight at the shelter, where they slept on mattresses with fresh sheets and pillows, luxuries they were grateful to experience.
We welcomed anywhere from 0 to 80 immigrants each day, offering hospitality on the front lines to brothers and sisters who have experienced a range of indignities. To offer food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing, showers, and toiletries to the weary, hope and hospitality to travelers left me filled with joy and gratitude.
That was in May. Shortly after we returned home, we heard from our friends in Laredo that Border Patrol was now releasing an average of 220 migrants to their shelters daily. In one month, our friends provided humanitarian assistance to almost 5,000 immigrants.
Then came MPP, or Remain in Mexico.
By the end of June, the shelters in Laredo were no longer receiving any immigrants. Remain in Mexico (MPP) now keeps asylum seekers waiting at the Mexico side of the border. Immigrants are living in make-shift tents with no running water, toilets, or showers. There is no medical care, social support, or education for the children. More than 60,000 people have been subject to this so far. MPP violates due process rights, domestic, and international law. Extortion, rape, and kidnapping are rampant. According to Human Rights First, there have been 636 publicly reported cases of violent attacks against asylum seekers returned under MPP, and the vast majority of such attacks are never reported. Asylum seekers are rendered more vulnerable under MPP by the fact that ICE/CBP confiscates all their shoelaces, making them an easily-identified target for cartels and traffickers. We could avoid feeding such violence by allowing families to seek asylum from within the U.S., instead of returning them to Mexico.
A friend in Laredo knows a priest who runs a shelter in Nuevo Laredo. The cartels know that thousands of asylum seekers are stuck at the border, so that’s where they’re now focusing their recruitment efforts. Cartels target the shelters and demand a percentage of the immigrants there be handed over to the gangs. If the people running the shelter do not comply, they themselves “disappear,” often to be found later, their bodies hacked into pieces. My friends in Laredo hear gunshots daily from across the river.
DHS has set up tent courts in some border towns. Until just last month, the tent courts have not been open to the public or to journalists. Immigrants face a judge and an interpreter on a TV screen, if they speak a language for which an interpreter can be found. About half of the asylum seekers from Guatemala—the ones with the most compelling cases—are from indigenous Mayan communities, many of whom do not speak Spanish. Less than one percent of asylum cases are being granted. In 2019, 5 cases were granted from Guatemala, out of 14,232 applications. Some families are so desperate for the safety of their children that they are sending them alone across the bridge. Unaccompanied children are placed in government shelters until authorities can connect with relatives in the U.S. to whom they can be released.
This past fall, I went to Tucson, Arizona, to volunteer at an immigrant welcome shelter there. For some reason we could not quite figure out, MPP was not yet being enforced at the Nogales border crossing. We welcomed on average 30-40 immigrants per day. We were not the only shelter in town; at the bus station I met volunteers from two other immigrant shelters.
Again, volunteers greeted and welcomed immigrants, and did basic informational intake, including medical history. Guests received medical care if needed, healthy food and drinks, and hot meals. Each family had their own private room, with clean sheets on the beds. They got to shower, select new clothing and shoes, and received help contacting their relatives to buy bus tickets for the next leg of their journeys. This shelter has lots of space where children can play, with toys and books and chairs nearby so adults can supervise. Children can even play outdoors in a large enclosed courtyard. This shelter also boasts an herb and flower garden. When the time was right, volunteers drove guests to the bus station and made sure they boarded the right bus.
Since returning to Colorado, things have changed again. A non-profit in San Diego and Tijuana put out a call for volunteers in late November. At that time there were 15,000 people stuck in Tijuana under MPP. The organization was struggling to keep up with their clients’ needs.
On December 9, representatives of 31 U.S. border shelters who have collectively provided temporary shelter to welcome over 320,000 asylum seekers in 2019 released a press statement calling for an end to MPP. These representatives
“reject the message that our capacity to help is overwhelmed. Collectively, we are here to let the U.S. government know that there is room in our inns. Instead of allowing us to welcome these families, … the U.S. government is returning them to Mexico, where they face homelessness and danger from human traffickers and cartels. As border shelters, we are ready to provide places of safety and welcome to asylum seekers.”
Sadly, the most recent developments in U.S. policy are now requiring some asylum seekers from Honduras and El Salvador to await their court dates in Guatemala, a dangerous country from which tens of thousands of people are fleeing. Immigrants at the Nogales port of entry in Arizona are now either being bused to El Paso, TX and made to wait for their court hearings in Ciudad Juarez, or are being forced to wait in Nogales.
Contrast the dangerous, unsanitary conditions of tent camps with the welcoming, well-supplied shelters within the U.S. Oh, that our government would allow people of faith to love our neighbors, to show hospitality to strangers, and to care for the most vulnerable brothers and sisters of Jesus, offering them food, drink, clothing, shelter, and friendship, rather than offering them up to violence, fear, and disease. Lord, have mercy.