How asylum seekers cross the border into the United States

HIDALGO, Texas – Since President Joe Biden took office, migration to the southern border of the United States has increased to stacks hadn’t been seen for decades.

The crossings in the past two months have dwarfed last summer’s high numbers and officials expect the trend to continue, although, with the pandemic restrictions still in place, there is hardly any access to asylum.

The vast majority of migrants cross the United States at points between official ports of entry, crossing the border by walking or wading, swimming or floating across the Rio Grande, almost always under the surveillance of guides hired in Mexico approved by cartels.

Sometimes, customs and border protection officials have invited some to come through pedestrian bridges from Mexico, by far the safest and most orderly route.

Waiting to be hand picked

A migrant camp known as Senda De Vida in the Mexican city of Reynosa, across the river from McAllen, Texas, has been full for months.

The pastor who runs it opened a second space last month for migrants sleeping in a makeshift camp in a nearby public park.

In early May, a mother and daughter from Honduras were at the camp when they learned that they were part of a group chosen to cross the United States.

A year earlier, they said, they fled Honduras after their 15-year-old daughter was kidnapped and raped by a local gang.

Once a bubbly and talkative teenager now barely speak and winces every time someone approaches, his mother said.

When the couple arrived in Nuevo Laredo, a city in northern Mexico where drug cartels fought for territory, they and others on their bus were abducted and sexually assaulted for days, they said.

On the 15th, mother and daughter fled and crossed the Rio Grande to the United States on a boat carrying about 30 people.

But border officials, pointing to Heading 42, the public health rule that has limited immigration since the start of the pandemic, sent them back to Mexico.

Soon after, they registered at the Reynosa shelter, which maintains a database of all the migrants who pass through it.

At the end of April, the pastor who runs the shelter, Héctor Silva, was invited to meet with US government officials to discuss a process for sending some migrants who benefit from humanitarian exceptions to the health rule across the pedestrian bridge connecting Reynosa with the United States.

The government allows such exceptions for considered immigrants particularly vulnerableand decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

Silva said customs and border protection contacted two or three times a day to inquire about small groups of people who fall into certain categories.

On May 1, for example, Silva was asked to look for single mothers.

This also happens in other places along the border, often as a result of direct communication between local CBP officials, lawyers, and nonprofit groups helping asylum seekers, according to lawyers and asylum officials from the United States Department of Homeland Security. .

In other situations, asylum lawyers work directly with CBP officials to identify suitable migrants. humanitarian exceptions.

The mother and daughter Senda De Vida, along with other migrants deemed fit to cross that day, were tested for coronavirus and then went to a school bus, which would take them to the footbridge.

On the deck, the daughter, who wore a mask and a T-shirt marked “Good Vibes Only,” cast smiling eyes as she looked out over the United States.

“My heart is beating fast,” said the mother as she waited for customs and border protection officers to reach the point on the bridge where two types of pavement that separate Mexico from the United States meet.

The mother and daughter met family members in Austin, Texas later that day.

Trying to dodge the border patrol

Early one morning, five migrants sat in a parking lot in Hidalgo, most of them handcuffed by the wrist of another migrant.

They provided border officers with whatever form of identification they were carrying and stored their personal belongings, including shoelaces, belts, watches and smartphones, in plastic bags.

Three were from Mexico, two from Honduras.

Two of the Mexicans had married and were coming to the United States in search of a better life; they had left four children under the age of 12 with their families at home.

For all but one, it wasn’t the first time they had been captured after crossing the border.

Some had relatives in Texas and Minnesota.

Nearby, Officer Jesse Moreno searched for a group of migrants trying to evade the border patrol and arrested several men at a self-depot shop in Hidalgo, Texas.

The men had just crossed the river; his jeans were soaked to the knees.

Another officer yelled, “Get down on your knees! Kneel! “After finding other migrants from the group hiding under a truck in the parking lot of an adjacent shopping center.

One man said it was the fourth time he had crossed the border.

The Border Patrol said the men would be tried at a local station, where officers recorded their personal information and background checks, and then likely sent back to Mexico via the Hidalgo port of entry.

There are also many migrants who manage to sneak across the border and evade detection.

The border patrol agents call them “losses“.

The Biden administration has estimated that around 389,000 migrants avoided detention between October 2020 and September 2021.

Republicans who criticize Biden’s immigration policies say it is very likely that he was greatly underestimated.

Give up

Many people who have crossed the southern border in recent years have hurried to turn themselves in.

Agents call them “delivery”; many are families.

One of the busiest crossing points in the Rio Grande Valley is located in Rome, Texas, a historic city of about 11,000 people, with parts located on sandstone cliffs overlooking the Rio Grande.

One afternoon last month, before dark, a group of Border Patrol agents took in the breathtaking sight, including a stretch of the river where groups of migrants often they swim in the United States early in the morning.

Later that week, a group of migrants emerged from the river on the Texas side and entered private property, following a winding, sandy road to await Texas National Guard troops and Border Patrol agents.

Wet by the river, the migrants presented carefully hidden documents to Border Patrol agents, who had set up a makeshift office with desks and chairs on the dirt road that connects the river to the city.

Dozens lined up to wait their turn to speak to an agent.

Nobody tried to sneak out; they all remained silent.

A girl had to go to the bathroom and her mother escorted her to a discreet spot behind a border patrol truck while the girl’s father anxiously watched them return.

A Honduran mother gave her baby a bottle, smiled and stroked her hair.

A Guatemalan boy shook his head, trying to get something out of his ear.

Parents made faces at their children to provoke smiles, while the wait lasted until the wee hours of the morning.

Typically, federal border officials separate migrants into categories to help speed up processing hours ahead.

Children who arrive without a parent or guardian go to an area; others are grouped by nationality.

Adult migrants from Mexico and Central America they can be quickly expelled under the pandemic public health rule.

Some immigrants, for example from Cuba and Nicaragua, are usually tried in the country pending removal procedures that probably won’t take place for months or years.

Once the officers have tried everyone, the migrants are taken by bus to a customs and border protection facility where they wait in multiple lines and answer multiple questions.

Some may stay there for several days before officials decide whether or not they can, at least for now, stay in the country.

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