The Daily Beast
Biden’s end to ‘staying in Mexico’ was too late for 41,247 migrants
Paul Ratje / Getty The last residents of Mexico’s Matamoros refugee camp crossed the border into the United States on March 5 to seek asylum. The migrants – many of whom are Central Americans fleeing endemic violence, poverty and corruption – will be allowed to stay in the US if their cases move through the immigration court system. The exodus from the Matamoros camp, which previously sheltered more than 2,500 asylum seekers, is the end of a Trump-era policy called the Migrant Protection Protocols. The policy, commonly known as “Stay in Mexico” in January 2019, forced 71,000 migrants detained along the U.S.-Mexico border to resubmit to Mexico and wait for many months while their demands has been processed. The Trump administration claims the Migrant Protection Protocols ensure a “safe and orderly process.” But it created a refugee crisis in Mexico, whose border towns were not equipped to house, feed and protect tens of thousands of refugees. Matamoros is one of many tent camps and Catholic shelters. On President Joe Biden’s first day, the Department of Homeland Security suspended the Migrant Protection Protocols, and by the end of February, asylum seekers were selected for COVID-19 and admitted to the United States. The change has brought great relief to the more than 15,000 migrants stranded in camps in northern Mexico at the time, but the border is too late to reopen for most of the 41,247 migrants whose cases were rejected. is while they ‘stayed in Mexico’. Reform, but hopefuls say they have been burned before. The Transactional Records Access to Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, where I investigate immigration enforcement, collect and analyze government records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. From records we obtained from the Department of Justice, it appears that 71,036 total asylum cases were filed from Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols, which ran from January 2019 to January 2021. So far, 41,888 cases have been completed or closed. Of these, only 641 people were granted asylum or otherwise sheltered in the United States, an approval rate of 1.5%. In 2017, by contrast, 40 percent of asylum seekers granted their claims through a U.S. immigration judge. Of the 41,888 cases dealt with under the Migrant Protection Protocols, 32,659 asylum seekers received a deportation order from an immigration judge – even though they were not physically in the United States. Most of these – 27,898 – received deportation orders because they did not appear for their immigration court hearing on the U.S. side of the border. There are many reasons why migrants who were waiting in Mexico may not have come to the immigration court. One is the dangers of northern Mexico, where drug cartels and organized crime prey on vulnerable migrants. Matamoros is in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, where rape, torture and kidnapping are so pervasive that the US State Department has a “do not travel” advice. on the state. Asylum seekers carry fresh water distributed in a migrant camp on the border between America and Mexico on February 23, 2021. John Moore / Getty Human Rights First first documented 1,544 cases of asylum seekers falling victim to violence while waiting in Mexico. In one case, Customs and Border Protection sent a Salvadoran family back to Mexico in May 2019 despite their outspoken fears. In November 2019, the father was stabbed to death in Tijuana, leaving behind his wife and two children. “I told the judge that I was scared of my children because we were in a horrible, horrible place and that we did not feel safe. here, ‘his widow told news agency Telemundo. Another victim was a Honduran woman from the Afro-Caribbean minority Garífuna, who was abducted and raped in the city of Juárez while “staying in Mexico”. And Vice Magazine reports on David, an asylum seeker from Guatemala, who was abducted by a cartel five hours after he was sent back to Mexico in 2019. David escaped, but because the cartel had taken his paperwork, an asylum application became anything but impossible. Trump immigration policy – but not immediately. Lack of legal advice is another reason why migrants waiting in Mexico may not have appeared at their U.S. court hearings, or that they were denied asylum and issued a deportation order. their cases, and 99 percent of asylum-seeking families with an immigration attorney, attend all of their immigration hearings. But it was much harder to get a U.S. immigration attorney in Tamaulipas, Mexico, than in Texas in 2019. In fiscal 2020, only 14 people of immigrants who were forced to “stay in Mexico” had an immigration lawyer found, compared to 80 percent of asylum cases for migrants in the US. Without a lawyer, communication with the U.S. court system across an international border is an almost insurmountable barrier. Migrants, for example, told BuzzFeed News that U.S. immigration and customs enforcement often submitted incomplete or inaccurate paperwork and sometimes referred to ‘Facebook’ as the physical address of migrants. And without a lawyer, it would have been very impossible for these migrants to receive crucial court notices. ‘Stay in Mexico’ has made it nearly impossible for asylum seekers to find safety in the US. sitting in the White House. Asylum outcomes are often determined just as much by which asylum officer or immigration judge decides the case, as it is determined by merit. Immigration judges in Atlanta reject an average of 97 percent of asylum cases, while those in New York approve an average of 74 percent. Even though El Salvador and Honduras are among the top five countries in the world for violent deaths. courts typically deny more than 80 percent of asylum cases from those countries, mainly because the U.S. government is reluctant to recognize gang persecution and domestic violence as grounds for asylum. Political and economic instability in Central America also drives children to flee. the environment. In the past two weeks, 3,200 minor minors have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border. ‘Stay in Mexico’ has given asylum seekers a difficult choice: stay and hope to survive or lose your chance, no matter how small, for a new life. Happiness and perseverance have borne fruit for the estimated 15,000 migrants who can now pursue their asylum demands of the relative security of the United States. But for all the others, there is no second chance. Austen Kocher is an Associate Professor of Research at the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily membership of the beast: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. Learn more.