Jimmy Muñoz has just turned himself in to the US Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico. His silhouette is drawn in the distance, in the middle of a verdant plain. Now walk towards a checkpoint where they will decide their fate.
“I hope I can stay in this country”, says this 29-year-old Ecuadorian. “But I have doubts and fears that they will accept me,” he adds, pointing to an orange tent about 300 meters away where a crowd can be seen.
Although it is already on American soil, near the city of Brownsville, Texas, it has a barbed wire fence in front of it and, subsequently, a metal fence about four meters high.
In Brownsville the flow of migrants in transit from the nearby Mexican city of Matamoros does not stop. Military vehicles are deployed nearby.
regulations
Like Jimmy Muñoz, thousands of migrants have turned themselves in to authorities in recent weeks, fearing that a change in US border rules due at midnight on Thursday could complicate their entry into the country, according to their own testimony.
A large number of them are Venezuelans.but there are also other Latin Americans and Asians.
At checkpoints, the authorities separate the men from the women and transfer them to different treatment centres.
“When they stop us, they treat us well.. They take us to a cell, they bring us food, and a process of questions and tests begins [muestras] DNA, a routine process I imagine for immigrants. Then they give you freedom,” explains Rossi Carrillo, 26, in downtown Brownsville.
“They give us a paper for an appointment with the judge [para que decida si es posible permanecer o no en el país]. They gave it to me within a yearadds Rossi, who is from Venezuela and spends the night near the Brownsville bus station.
Others have been summoned for a few months from now, and some for three years from now.
AFP spoke to several migrants who were allowed to enter. They took everyone’s name and contact details and the address of the family member or friend who is waiting for them in the United States. Rossi and her husband are expected in Atlanta, Georgia.
José Luis Aular, a 38-year-old Venezuelan, says authorities asked him to download an app to track his location. From time to time you should take a photo of the place in the country you are in and upload it.
Title 42
Between October 2022 and March 2023, more than 200,000 people were prosecuted in Texas under Title 42, a health rule triggered in the Trump era by covid-19, which allows anyone who crosses the border to be expelled without accepting their immigration requests. This provision will be lifted on Thursday.
In the same period, around 453,000 people were processed in Texas under Title 8, a specific immigration law that allows asylum seekers to apply, but also authorizes expulsion, even if not summary but accelerated.
Title 8 is feared by immigrants because someone expelled under that regulation you can end up with a criminal recordor a five-year ban on applying for legal entry into the United States.
The U.S. Border Patrol gave a clear warning on Wednesday: those trying to enter illegally “they will continue to be deported to Mexico or their country of origin.”
“Those migrants who cannot be removed under Title 42 and do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States, will undergo removal proceedings under Title 8,” he said in a message posted in Spanish on social media.
Rossi Carrillo is happy to have been able to enter. “They were things of God, because not everyone has the same luck. There are women with children who have given them back”He says.
“My dream was to be here and my second goal is to bring my kids and my mom,” she says.
In her arms is Niña, a poodle who accompanied her on her journey through eight countries, including the Darien Jungle between Colombia and Panama.
“She’s walked through the jungle, she’s come out dirty, she’s swum in rivers, we’ve had her on pure whey because her food was out,” she says. The animal was seized, but he later recovered it with the help of a foundation.
Still on the border, Jimmy Muñoz tells why he left Ecuador: “We came on the run, they want to kill us. I can’t have a deal because they extort us. I feel good to have crossed“.
AFP agency
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.