A single figure makes clear the alarm that exists among US authorities over the massive arrival of Colombians at the southern border between the United States and Mexico, which led last month to the expulsion, by “express route”, of more than 600 nationals who tried to crown the desired “American dream”
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Between October 2019 and February 2022, the border patrol detected an increase of more than 20,000 percent in the migratory flow: from 42 monthly detainees at the end of 2019 to about 9,600 by the beginning of this.
The phenomenon, of which there were already certain indications, exploded in February and March of this year when record numbers of Colombians were registered trying to cross the border, the vast majority through Yuma, in Arizona.
To date, most nationals, at least those who applied for asylum, had been processed through the so-called Title 8, or the regular immigration channel that is applied to people who arrive in the United States requesting this status. .
Since it is a process that can take months, many are released in the United States while the judicial proceedings progress and then end up staying illegally.
Donald Trump’s controversial ‘Title 42’
Since this is a “removal” and not a deportation, Title 42 requires an agreement with the country of origin. One to which Colombian and US authorities arrived in March.
In particular, those who arrive in family groups that include children, since the US, under the Joe Biden administration, prohibited the placement of minors in detention centers while the legal situation is resolved.
But the dramatic increase in Colombians arriving at the border caused a change in strategy by the Americans, who now they have begun to expel them using the controversial title 42, a measure that President Donald Trump established in March 2020 when the covid-19 pandemic broke out.
Claiming that there was a health emergency and that migrants could spread the disease, Title 42 allowed authorities to return people without having to prosecute them to determine the merits of an asylum claim. Since then, more than 1.7 million people have been expelled from the United States. this way, mostly Mexicans and Central Americans.
Since this is a “removal” and not a deportation, Title 42 requires an agreement with the country of origin. One to which Colombian and US authorities arrived at the beginning of March and which allowed the return of 600 people on six flights that were paid for by the Americans.
This Friday, the US announced that it will rescind Title 42 effective May 23. Something for which the Democrats had been pressured and to which Biden committed himself during the electoral campaign. However, it is an explosive issue.
Since his arrival at the White House, there have been record numbers of immigrants trying to enter the country after a period of relative calm as a result of the closures caused by the pandemic and the anti-immigration policies that were promoted during the Trump years.
And in that context, Title 42, through which 63 percent of all those who tried to enter were being expelled from the US, was a valuable tool to avoid a crisis on the southern border. But the measure had been causing enormous controversy.
Although at the beginning of the pandemic the measure was justified – and many countries in the world applied similar restrictions –, with the arrival of vaccines and the return to normality in much of the country, it was increasingly difficult to defend that the coronavirus was causing a health emergency serious enough to suspend the country’s immigration regulations.
Hypocrisy of state governments like Texas and Arizona
In a letter sent last month to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Biden administration, a group of Democratic senators vehemently complained: “We are perplexed that the CDC continues to use a draconian initiative at the border, which contradicts the US recovery from the pandemic,” high-profile lawmakers such as Cory Booker and Bob Menendez said in the letter.
They also pointed out the hypocrisy of states like Texas and Arizona, where their authorities were among the first to lift all pandemic measures and reopen the economy, but insisted on continuing to use the virus as an excuse to deny rights to immigrants seeking asylum.
“Title 42 was never a health issue but about keeping away people who were seeking asylum and protection and for political and ideological reasons. Asylum is a right that is contemplated in the laws of this country”, said Congressman Juan Vargas.
According to Adam Isacson, an expert in hemispheric security at Wola who has been studying migratory flows to the United States for several years, the case of the Colombians would have several explanations. The most prevalent, says the analyst, is the absence of a visa requirement to enter Mexico, which has been eliminated since 2012. within the framework of the negotiations for the creation of the Pacific Alliance (which brings together Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico).
Having removed the visa for Mexico, the key to the mess
“Right now any Colombian arrives in Mexico by air or land with a valid passport, goes to the border with the United States and requests asylum. It is not easy to remove them using Title 42 because the repatriation flights are expensive, so most end up staying for years while their cases are resolved in immigration courts. And those who arrive with children are not put in detention centers”, says the analyst.
Something similar was also happening with Ecuadorians, Brazilians and Venezuelans, who also did not need a visa to enter Mexico. Under pressure from the US government, this country recently reimposed the need for a visa for citizens of these countries, which slowed down the migration of this origin. To put it in context: Ecuador went from more than 12,000 immigrants per month detained at the border to less than 1,000 since the visa application began.
But there are other factors behind the increases and they are not exclusive to Colombians. After the years of “lockdown” under the Trump administration, many saw Biden’s arrival at the White House as an opportunity to migrate.
Likewise, the pandemic generated an economic crisis in many countries, which affected the poorest and pushed the desire to migrate. The current increases, moreover, coincide with the reopening of the borders, in March of last year, and the reactivation of commercial flights, which were stopped throughout much of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. In this sense, the application of the Title 42 to Colombians and citizens of other nationalities was also a way to deter immigration. But with the end of its application from May, it is most likely that the numbers, rather than falling, will continue to grow.
Ecuador went from more than 12,000 immigrants a month detained at the border to less than 1,000 since the visa application began.
According to Wola, the end of the policy corrects an error that had been endangering thousands of migrants who had left their countries for just reasons. But it’s also going to cause a stampede toward the border in the first few months.
“What worries us is that the authorities are not prepared to process people in an orderly, dignified and non-overcrowded manner,” says this organization. The Biden administration, aware of the looming situation, has been increasing border patrol personnel and fine-tuning details for a new plan that seeks to reduce waiting times for asylum seekers.
In a certain sense, this could be a substitute for Title 42, since it will allow immigration agents to be the first to qualify the eligibility of a migrant in their asylum claim, with the aim of reducing the workload of immigration judges who already they already have thousands of pending cases to resolve.
Be that as it may, the immigration authorities in Colombia have asked citizens to avoid the uncertain and dangerous path to the US, especially now that the border is about to become a hive.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
Correspondent of THE TIME
Washington
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