Thousands of asylum seekers looking to migrate to the United States are being sent to unsafe and uncertain conditions in Mexico as they await lengthy immigration court proceedings according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Hope Border Institute.
The report “‘We Can’t Help You Here’: US Returns of Asylum Seekers to Mexico,” found thousands of asylum seekers, including more than 4,780 children largely from Central America, are being returned to areas in Mexico that do not have enough accommodation, nor are they provided promised work visas, “limiting their means of survival and exposing them to exploitation.”
The report comes after the US Department of Homeland Security began returning asylum seekers to Mexico through the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program on January 29, beginning in the San Ysidro port of entry in southern California to Tijuana.
From January 29 to June 24 more than 15,000 asylum seekers have been returned to Tijuana and additional border cities Ciudad Juarez and Mexicali. These people have been instructed to appear at US immigration courts at a later date.
A mother with her three daughters from Guatemala crossed Mexico to reach the US in search of political asylum at the border city Juarez-El paso Texas. Source: Getty
Border cities like Ciudad Juarez are already bloated with asylum seekers and other migrants, leading to a shortage in crisis accommodation. The report estimates there are 6,600 asylum seekers already in Ciudad Juárez waiting for entry into the US through a system that restricts the number who can apply for asylum each day. With the additional MPP asylum seekers, the total number in the city could be as high as 12,700 according to the report – with Chihauhau state officials estimating there are only 1,000 shelter beds in Ciudad Juárez.
The report also claims US Border Patrol agents refused to return identification documents of asylum seekers, potentially restricting them from receiving money from relatives, travelling to seek asylum elsewhere or risk returning home – leaving them trapped in the border cities.
Luisa A.*, a 20-year-old who fled Honduras with her three-year-old son told the report she was initially staying at a shelter, but lost her place after returning to a primary immigration hearing in El Paso. On their return they were forced to stay in the streets. Eventually Luisa found a group of other mothers and pooled their money for a low-cost hotel room.
A sign in front of a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, informs asylum seekers that they have no space. Source: Clara Long/Human Rights Watch
“There are times when we either eat or pay for the hotel room,” Luisa said. “I prefer to have a roof over our heads than to wander the streets looking for shelter.”
The numbers of returned asylum seekers returned to Mexico are expected to balloon after the US announced a deal with Mexico to expand the program across the entire border. Mexican officials have publicly estimated that they expect about 60,000 people to be sent by the US to Mexico by the end of August.
“The US government has advanced a dangerous fiction that asylum seekers returned to Mexico will have access to work and shelter and a fair chance in US immigration courts,” said Clara Long, senior US researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “Instead, US border officials are stranding mothers with small children and other vulnerable migrants in Mexican border cities where their safety and security are at risk.”
*Not her real name
