Texas border officers launch some immigrant households after Mexico refused to take them again

Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters

Border guards in parts of Texas have started releasing some undocumented immigrant families after Mexican authorities refused to take them back under a Trump-era policy that expelled thousands of people who entered the U.S. illegally.

It is a significant change from recent years when former President Donald Trump ordered all immigrants and asylum seekers caught trying to enter the US illegally to be sent back to Mexico. As of March 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has immediately turned 382,552 immigrants back to Mexico. Citing a section of the health code known as Title 42, the Trump administration said it was necessary to deport immigrants to stop the spread of the coronavirus. However, an unintended consequence of the policy has been that immigrants have repeatedly attempted to cross undetected, increasing the number of arrests at the border.

CBP said the families were recently released due to COVID-19 restrictions that caused some of its facilities to reach capacity. Mexico recently passed a law prohibiting authorities from holding undocumented children in detention centers. With families in US detention centers and Mexico unable to accommodate them, CBP refused to release them last week in Texas border towns like McAllen and Brownsville.

“COVID-19 protocols, changes in Mexican law, and limited US holding capacity have forced us to adapt,” said CBP. “For the released migrants, CBP can work with non-governmental organizations to help keep them safe.”

The National Institute of Migration (INM), Mexico’s immigration service, declined requests from BuzzFeed News for comments. However, the country’s foreign ministry told Reuters that “local” policy adjustments had been made, citing a child protection law passed late last year. A senior Mexican official told the news agency that the changes were “minor” and appeared to be limited to the state of Tamaulipas, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.

The families’ release has been used by immigrant hawks and former Trump administration officials to warn of an impending border crisis sparked by recent instructions from President Joe Biden. Chad Wolf, the former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted that the change marked the return of “catch and release” and warned that it would lead to a “full blown crisis” at the border.

The phrase “catch and release” has been rejected by immigrant lawyers who say it is a dehumanizing way to describe the practice of allowing asylum seekers to wait outside of custody while their cases are being decided.

In Del Rio, Texas, also across from Tamaulipas, an animal shelter run by the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition has seen an increase in immigrants seeking help. In a Facebook post on Jan. 30, the organization said it helped an average of 25 people a week. Now, the coalition said it is helping at least 50 immigrants a day.

A DHS official told BuzzFeed News that the release of a certain number of families had only occurred in one area of ​​the border. Local media reported that up to 50 immigrant families were released daily in Brownsville; A shelter in McAllen told Reuters that 50 to 80 people have been seen every day since Jan. 27.

Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters

Central American immigrants stand near the Paso del Norte international border bridge after being deported to Mexico.

Shelters in San Diego also see higher numbers.

Kate Clark, senior director of immigration services at San Diego’s Jewish Family Service, which operates accommodation for immigrants, said she helped 54 asylum seekers in December.

“In January we welcomed 110 asylum seekers, the largest number we have seen in the last 10 months,” she added.

It is unclear why some families were allowed to enter the US and why others continue to be deported to Tijuana. An INM official in Baja California said they continue to accept immigrants under Title 42 and that there is no order or agreement that Mexico will no longer accept families.

Taylor Levy, an El Paso-based immigration attorney, said the number of asylum-seeking families released in central and south Texas increased on Jan. 27. Some of these families came from countries CBP cannot officially turn back to Mexico, such as Haitians, Cubans and Venezuelans, Levy said. But others were Central Americans.

“That’s about 50 people being released a day, which is pretty moderate numbers,” Levy said.

Nonetheless, Levy warned, some immigrants will continue to be deported instead of being released to the United States, either by land to Mexico or by air to their home countries.

“Title 42 [expulsions] Proceed as usual in the El Paso, Arizona and California sectors, “Levy said.

Historically, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, INM would arrest children and families with a migrant background, transfer them to the Mexican version of the child protection services and decide on their right to stay. Under the new law, displaced immigrant families can only be sent to the agency’s emergency shelters if they have the capacity.

But Levy said the new policy made no sense because INM almost never arrested families who were already deported under Trump’s 42 title.

“While some of the people expelled under Title 42 were turned over directly to INM,” Levy said, “a large number of people were taken by CBP to the center of the bridge and told to go south. That’s it. There was Zero.” Interaction by State or Federal Mexican Authorities. “

Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters

Haitian migrants walk near the Zaragoza-Ysleta international border bridge after being expelled from the United States in Ciudad Juarez.

In some cases, displaced families from the United States have been taken to shelters in Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, Levy said. However, this is not considered detention and would not be affected by the new Mexican law.

Joanna Williams, director of education and advocacy at Kino Border Initiative, a nonprofit based in Nogales, Ariz., Said INM, with four or five exceptions in the past year, never gave families or individuals documents of any kind after being excluded have. The agency could give them directions to a shelter, but the immigrants will have to go their own way.

“Essentially, they’re just staying on the road,” Williams said.

The displacement of immigrant families in the Nogales area has continued, she added.

Previously, Mexican immigration officials in Matamoros, Mexico, across the border with Brownsville, had issued documents to displaced families allowing them to stay, said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Rio Grande Valley Catholic Charities. From there, the families were “more or less” left to figure out where to go, she added.

The South Texas border was one of the busiest areas for immigrants trying to enter the U.S., but the Trump administration’s policies had effectively sealed off the border in recent years.

Before the pandemic was declared, the US had used another policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols to stop the release of families into the country. Under the MPP, unofficially known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, immigrants and asylum seekers in Mexico would have to wait for their cases to be decided by a US immigration judge. Thousands of immigrants are still waiting, some in dangerous border towns, despite the Biden government’s announcement in January that it will no longer accept new immigrants into the program.