A few weeks ago, Colombia was shaken by the case of Juan Carlos Rivera, a young man from Bogotá who lost his life trying to illegally cross the border between the United States and Mexico.
Desperate for the precarious economic situation of his family, which includes three small children, Juan Carlos took a plane to Cancun and from there another to Mexicali, a city that borders the state of Arizona and that for years has been one of the preferred routes of those who embark on this dangerous adventure of crowning the American dream.
Read more: The US speeds up the expulsion of Colombians detained at the border
No one knows exactly the details, but it seems that Rivera was abandoned by traffickers (coyotes) To whom he had paid 3,000,000 pesos to help him on the journey and he died alone and at night when he fell from one of the walls that separate this border area.
His case is very similar to Claudia Marcela Pineda, another Colombian who suffered a similar fate at the end of last year, when she perished -along with her daughter- of thirst, hunger and heat in the Sonoran deserttrying to achieve the same elusive dream that took Rivera.
Stories like theirs are not new. For decades, people have been talking about the risky journey that thousands of people take every year, not just Colombians, to reach the United States.
And many, in fact, remember The hollowa book by Germán Castro Caycedo published in 1989 in which the journalist made visible for the first time the case of dozens of nationals who risked everything -sometimes with luck and others not- to reach the US through its southern border .
El Hueco, as Castro Caycedo described it, is an abstract concept that has taken on different forms over the decades. At the time of the publication of his book, some Colombians crossed the Darien Gap (Panama) and from there by boat or land until they reached Mexico. Others did it from the Bahamas or Haiti.
In recent years, especially As of 2020, the preferred route to illegally cross into the US is by air to Cancun and then by car or plane to a city near the border.
This, in part, has to do with Mexico’s decision to eliminate the visa requirement to enter its country thanks to the signing of the Pacific Alliance agreement, signed in 2014, and which eliminated the document between the member countries (Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile).
But there is a constant that remains the same regardless of the passing of the years. It is a journey full of dangers that often ends in a grave. In fact, in the last 12 months the situation has been getting worse due to the increase in the number of migrants who have decided to take the risk and a series of decisions by the US that make what was already a difficult journey even more difficult. reckless
2021, the deadliest year in history for migrants
According to official data from the US Border Patrol supplemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in 2021 more than 650 deaths of people trying to enter this country were documented, mostly through the southern border.
This is the highest number recorded since this type of measurement began. To put it in context, the average number of deaths between 2014 and 2020 was 300 people. In other words, last year there was an increase of one hundred percent compared to those statistics.
The authorities also know that the figure does not represent the totality, since many people are never found, or their relatives avoid reporting them as missing due to the stigma attached to those who die under these circumstances.
The increase goes hand in hand with a marked increase in migration to the US in recent months. Last year, in fact, the authorities arrested a record number of migrants (1.7 million)a figure that speaks more of the tsunami of immigrants on their way to the country than of the efficiency of the border guard.
In the case of Colombians, the figures are alarming. Between October 2019 and March of this year there has been an increase of more than 20,000 percent in the number of people who have arrived at the border.
For them it is a life or death situation and the hole ends up being the only alternative. It’s heartbreaking
Last month alone, 9,600 arrived, triple the number registered in January. The situation is so dramatic that the United States negotiated an agreement with Colombia to return them “expressly”, that is, expelled without going through the regular deportation process, which usually includes a rigorous evaluation of their asylum applications when they are submitted before The authorities.
According to authorized sources, since March 1, more than 2,000 nationals have been returned through this route in at least 12 repatriation flights financed by the US government.
Express expulsion is possible thanks to Title 42, a policy that dates back to the time of Donald Trump and that allows his removal alleging an emergency in the health situation caused by the covid-19 epidemic.
A policy that Adam Isaacson, hemispheric security expert from the Wola organization, has made migration through ‘El Hollow’ even more reckless than it already was.“Since they began to apply Title 42 and knowing that if they were arrested the expulsion was immediate, many migrants would be choosing to enter the United States through the desert by more dangerous routes. Before they reached the border and surrendered to the authorities asking for asylum. Now they know that this is not an option and so they take more risks,” says Isacson.
The increase in immigration has several explanations. On the one hand, the hardships that covid-19 has caused in the region is pushing more people north in search of opportunities and a better life.
Likewise, and despite the fact that under President Joe Biden more people have been expelled than at any other time in recent history, the perception has been that the arrival of the Democratic leader to the White House would facilitate entry into the US. after the years of “lockdown” that were experienced under Trump.
And to that an additional factor has been added. Unlike Trump, Biden suspended the immediate deportation and/or arrest of people who arrive at the border with children. Which, in practice, has encouraged the immigration of family nuclei, raising the risk of death since minors are more vulnerable to the rigors of this dangerous journey.
Although there are no consolidated figures yet, 2022 is looking very similar to 2021: more migration, more expulsions and more deaths trying to cross ‘El Hueco’.
A few days ago, the Biden administration announced that will stop applying Title 42 as of May 23, since the health emergency no longer exists which allowed the rights of asylum seekers to be suspended.
Although it was something that members of his own party had been clamoring for, who saw it as an excuse to deport with impunity, according to most analysts that will translate into a new migratory exodus to the United States through this complicated route.
High risk crossing to reach the United States
The risks faced by immigrants are very similar to those that have always existed.
The first, without a doubt, are the same “coyotes”, who are usually part of unscrupulous criminal gangs that often deceive their “clients” or they are abandoned to their fate, as happened to Juan Carlos Rivera.
“They charge them the money and then they abandon them in a desert they don’t know and they don’t know how to navigate,” a border patrol agent (CBP) tells this newspaper. In the process, moreover, many women are sexually abused by the same “coyotes.”
According to an Amnesty International report, At least 60 percent of them (and this includes girls) said they had suffered some form of sexual assault during the voyage.
According to the report, it is a practice that is assumed as “the price” that some have to pay if they want to crown the American dream.
I was one of those who did. But I know many who didn’t pass, including a couple who started with me. And life here in the US is not easy either. Not worth it. The risk is very high.
At the same time there are the rigors of the desert, which at some times of the year are usually brutal. In the Arizona desert, one of the routes most used by Colombians in recent months, temperatures during the day can reach 46 degrees Celsius while at night it drops to minus 5 degrees or more.
Add to that the vastness of the terrain. The case of the Sonoran desert (the Mexican name for this same area in Arizona) is 260,000 square kilometers where a person can easily get lost if they are abandoned by the “coyote”.
Many people like Pedro Cruz, a Colombian who crossed ‘El Hueco’ 12 months ago and who spoke with this newspaper, say that they would never repeat that journey if they had the opportunity.
“I was one of those who made it. But I know many who did not pass, including a couple who started with me. And life here in the US is not easy either. It’s not worth it. The risk is very high,” Cross says.
But according to Katy Murdza of the Council for American Migration, others see no other option either.
“There are not a few who have told me that they would rather die in the desert or across a river than stay in their home countries where they have no chance and their lives are permanently at risk. For them it is a life or death situation and the hole ends up being the only alternative. It’s heartbreaking,” says Murdza.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
Correspondent of THE TIME
Washington
On Twitter: @ sergom68
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