Asylum in the USA: how immigrants live, sent to wait for decisions in Mexico - ForumDaily
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Asylum in the USA: how immigrants live, sent to wait for decisions in Mexico

Juan Carlos Perla says he spent his first night in the US in a cold immigration cell with another 21 migrant. In the basement, fluorescents were always turned on. The space was so tight that he had to put his mat next to the toilet, writes Star advertiser.

An 36-year-old man from El Salvador was soon reunited with his wife and three sons, 6 and 4, and 10, who were kept in another cell. The family returned to Tijuana, Mexico, to await the San Diego asylum hearing. They were one of the first families to face radical changes in US policy. The changes stipulate that asylum seekers should stay in Mexico until their cases are tried in immigration courts.

Perla was greatly shocked by what was happening and said that he decided to skip the trial date and settle in Mexico instead.

“We are afraid that we will lose our case and be deported back to El Salvador. This is suicide for me, my wife and children,” says Perla.

Perla told a US customs and border guard officer that he and his family left their small bakery in the Salvadoran capital after he missed the monthly fee extorted by members of 18 gang. He said that he was beaten and threatened to kill him and his family if he did not pay the next installment.

If the experience of this family is a trend, then the new US policy may lead to the refusal of immigrants to apply for asylum in the States. Now the country receives a huge number of such statements, which led to a delay in their consideration of more than 800 000 cases and forced the applicants to wait for a decision for years. The Trump administration officials say they want to limit the number of poorly substantiated applications, freeing up judges to consider truly well-founded cases.

But changes are being implemented very slowly. 240 people were returned to Tijuana from San Diego in the first six weeks of the new rules. The Trump administration later expanded this strategy to another border crossing, in Calexico, California. Over time, this practice will spread along the entire border.

Such changes decided to be introduced after the number of families seeking asylum in the United States from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador increased dramatically.

Waiting in Tijuana is an unexpected obstacle for asylum seekers who hoped to live in the United States while awaiting a court decision.

Selvin Alvarado, his girlfriend, and their children from a previous relationship, stayed at a Tijuana orphanage for about six weeks, waiting for their turn to enter the United States at the San Diego checkpoint to apply for asylum. To earn money, Alvarado had to work as a loader and unload ceramic tiles, while his girlfriend looked after their boys aged 7 and 10 for years.

After filing an application for asylum, Alvarado was separated from his family and placed in a cell for men with constantly turned on fluorescent lamps, where he lost the sensation of day and night. He told the customs officers that he had run away with his family after he learned that the head of his farm team was stealing money and they began to threaten to kill his son. He said he was afraid of armed gangster groups in Honduras.

He was sent to Tijuana to wait for a decision on asylum with his 10-year-old son, and his wife and second son went to the US and settled with cousin Alvarado in Houston. He says that he cannot work in Tijuana, because there is no one to look after his son.

Many migrants face difficulties due to lack of legal advice. Customs officers offer a list of potential human rights organizations, but Alvarado says that he could not get through to anyone on these phones. One of the Los Angeles legal groups told him about the asylum procedure in the United States, but did not provide individual advice.

Immigration lawyers face difficulties in assisting people who are on the other side of the border.

The hearings on the granting of asylum to those who were sent to wait for decisions in Tijuana are scheduled within 45 days after the submission of applications. The authorities are trying to ensure that the applications of these people are reviewed faster than those who are waiting for decisions in the United States. Asylum seekers will have to come to the border crossing for temporary entry into the United States on the day of the trial. People will be met by buses that take them to court.

Lack of legal assistance often affects the outcome of asylum seekers.

Dr. Juan Ramon Molina, a primary care physician from Honduras, told a CBP officer that government forces tried to kidnap him for membership in an opposition political party twice and that he did not seek refuge in Guatemala or Mexico because his family lives in the United States. The relatives of the men live in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, DC, Miami and West Virginia.

Molina's 35-year-old searched the Internet for legal assistance for immigrants, which you can get while staying at a Tijuana orphanage. The court in his case is scheduled for April 8, but the man fears that his political opponents will hunt him down, which could pose a threat to his life. However, he says that staying in Tijuana is better than being detained in the United States, where he spent two days in a basement cell, which, he said, was crowded and cold.

“The treatment we received was inhumane,” he said.

Before being returned to Mexico, Perla arranged with the pastor in Berkeley, California, to provide him with housing, assistance in finding legal advice and organizing education for his children. But he was returned to Mexico, in Tijuana his family lives in a tent in a shelter for migrants.

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