The Scene on the Border

Eileen Sullivan, a Occasions reporter who covers immigration, lately reported from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The variety of individuals crossing the border is the highest it’s been in not less than twenty years. We spoke to her about what she noticed.

Eileen, thanks for speaking. Why are so many individuals attempting to get into the U.S.?

Some try to flee violence and life beneath authoritarian governments, in addition to poverty. Rather a lot are looking for economic opportunities after the pandemic erased jobs. Two hurricanes in 2020 additionally damage the livelihoods of many individuals in Guatemala and Honduras, on prime of current gang violence.

I went to Reynosa, in Mexico throughout the border from McAllen, Texas. One mom and daughter I met from Honduras: The daughter is 15. She was leaving class sooner or later when she was kidnapped and raped by a neighborhood gang. As soon as women hit their teenagers, they’re not likely secure; they’re seen as truthful recreation for these assaults. This mom and daughter, as soon as they bought to Mexico, had been kidnapped once more, in all probability by cartel members, and sexually assaulted for days earlier than they escaped. It’s devastating.

Who’s attempting to cross?

For many years, many Mexicans and folks from northern Central America crossed. That’s nonetheless true. These days, there are additionally individuals from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela and, most lately, Peruvians.

There have been additionally a variety of Haitian migrants who had tried to get into the U.S. but failed. Persons are leaving Haiti as a result of gangs rule the streets, and folks there are afraid to depart their houses.

Whereas I used to be in Reynosa, I noticed Haitians and different migrants standing exterior a shelter and attempting to get in, attempting to speak to a pastor who was in cost. The pastor retains a listing of everybody in his shelter and close by tent camps. I say tent, nevertheless it was extra like tarps in a plaza in a metropolis sq.. Many are regrouping earlier than attempting to cross once more.

What was the temper like?

Folks didn’t look depressing or sad; they only appeared resigned. That they had been hopeful that Title 42 would lift as pandemic restrictions eased up — it’s an emergency well being rule that closed the border. However a judge blocked the Biden administration from eradicating it. Their perception that it might finish can be a part of why extra migrants have traveled to the border lately.

Many Republicans have also emphasized that extra migrants started coming to the border after President Biden’s election, hoping that the U.S. would let extra individuals in than it did beneath Donald Trump. Is that one more reason for the rise?

Sure, completely. Biden promised a extra welcoming America, and asylum seekers had been hopeful he would ship. In the course of the Trump administration, insurance policies restricted entry to asylum, even earlier than the pandemic.

What occurs when individuals cross the border?

I went to the Rio Grande Valley on the U.S. facet after overlaying per week of hearings in Washington, D.C., the place I heard a variety of sensationalism, like “the border is damaged” or “they’re overrun.” However after I went to the elements of South Texas they had been speaking about, I didn’t see that. I didn’t discover chaos.

The border is ostensibly closed, and about half of migrants who enter are expelled beneath Title 42. Some are despatched again residence or to Mexico, just like the Haitians I noticed in Reynosa.

However a variety of migrants are allowed to stay in the U.S. temporarily for numerous causes. Some can keep to face elimination proceedings, however they wait years for a courtroom date as a result of immigration courts are so overloaded. Many try to file for asylum.

How do they transfer ahead? Are they coming to the U.S. with provides or cash?

Some are, some aren’t. Lots of people have contacts and plans for the place to go once they get right here — like staying with family members already within the U.S. Somebody I met in a shelter was on my flight again from Del Rio, Texas, to Houston.

Others don’t have any cash, however when they’re apprehended they get despatched to respite facilities proper over the border — consider these locations as means stations, the place individuals go to get provides, a Covid check, clear garments and different requirements.

There are a variety of donations to the respite facilities: underwear, bras, child tools, socks, footwear.

Some convey a change of garments, whereas some individuals lose their garments. On the border itself in Eagle Move, Texas, I noticed one lady who had simply swum throughout the Rio Grande — she got here out and didn’t have pants on.

Virtually everybody has a cellphone. Folks discover methods to guard them, together with from water in the event that they’re crossing the Rio Grande. Respite facilities usually have plugs for chargers. It’s their lifeline.

Extra about Eileen: She began her journalism profession at The Courier-Put up in Cherry Hill, N.J. In 2012, she was a part of an Related Press staff that gained a Pulitzer Prize for revealing the New York Police Division’s surveillance of Muslims.

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