Border Update

The race to implement the harshest policies against migrants (be they children or vulnerable adults or families) continues to wreak havoc on those individuals attempting to enter the US through our southern border. President Biden’s June ban on asylum seekers has left people in Matamoros and Reynosa in even more dangerous situations (if that can even be imagined). For instance:

1. Kidnappings (along with torture, rape, and murder) have been normalized—in the sense that there is no (Mexican) government intervention. What the Mexican government has done is offer “transportation” caravans to migrants. That is, certain buses leaving Monterrey with migrants seeking to honor their appointments with CBP are accompanied by military units. This has been a limited service, and it is not clear what happens after the migrants get off of the bus in Reynosa or Matamoros.

2. A large shelter in Reynosa (Senda 2) is in effective lockdown: individuals attempting to enter the shelter, be they migrants or humanitarian aid workers have been kidnapped.

3. A 37-year-old Haitian man who was in the terminal phase of his cancer sought admission at the Brownsville International Bridge to seek medical care. He was refused and the reason given to advocates was that his case would cost the hospital a lot of money (this was stated by a non-medical Customs and Border Protection Agent). The man returned to the shelter he was staying in and died two days later. (We include this case as, prior to the executive order handed down in June, people with extreme medical conditions would be allowed into the US. Further, that medical decisions are being taken by non-medical border agents is disturbing. Particularly for the person desperately seeking help.

Some good news:

Stephanie Leutert and her team continue to publish peer-reviewed reports on the border for The
Central America and Mexico Policy Initiative at the Strauss Center. https://www.strausscenter.org/publications/asylum-processing-at-the-u-s-mexico-border-august-2024/

Early voting begins soon.

Encourage your family, your friends, your faith community, all those who owe you money, or a favor to vote!

Border Update

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First, the good news:

The under-resourced (read “unpaid”) people working on behalf of migrants on both sides of the border continue to do heroic, creative, generous and substantive work. Just one example: last week a Salvadoran woman living near Dallas reached out to a Mexican volunteer to report that she had been raped and that the rapists were still outside her apartment complex. The woman was afraid of the police (she had had experience with Salvadoran police), but terrified. The Mexican volunteer reached into the network of US-based volunteers and within the hour (literally) the woman was in touch with a psychologist who helped her work her way out of the situation. Two powerful women working the Immunization Project took time out from their work to find the woman legal support. They also recruited the legal director of the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas who stopped his day job and seek her out and offer some solid advice. Just one story; there are many others.

Now, the hard news:

The suffering of people seeking asylum at the US southern border continues to worsen. Presently, there is a ban (effectively speaking) on the admission of asylum seekers. An executive action announced in June disqualified migrants who cross the southern border between legal entry points from the asylum process. The rule also removed the requirement for U.S. immigration officials to ask migrants whether they fear being harmed if deported. Migrants must proactively declare that fear, an unreasonable request of people often fleeing persecution from armed, uniformed officials.  Vulnerable cases presenting at the Brownsville bridge are now completely disregarded, no matter the physical or psychological disposition of the migrant. We reported last week on a poor fellow who had been horribly tortured. His plea for entry was denied; he has since disappeared, since the kidnappers had taken his money, his phone and his documents.

All of this is politically driven and an election looms. For those so disposed, one might consider joining https://votefwd.org/ a non-partisan civic engagement tool. Vote Forward is a nationally recognized 501 (c) 3 organization and an effective way to encourage voters.

The present U.S. policy on asylum seekers at the southern border admits no asylum seeker who does not have a “CBP1 appointment”. This despite international and US law which guarantees a person’s right to ask for asylum upon setting foot in a country. The right to request asylum does not depend upon how the person entered the United States, nor does it require that an asylum seeker must wait in another country pending an appointment. The present wait time at the Mexican border is between 6 and 8 months (longer, if you are Mexican). There is mortal irony in a Mexican seeking political asylum and being made to wait in the very country from which they are fleeing.

Even when these extraordinary demands are met, there is no leniency. For example, the case below is of a man who missed his appointment to be considered for admission to the US when he was kidnapped. After the kidnappers released him, the man asked for an exception as he had missed his appointment due to no fault of his own—he was being tortured. The Customs and Border Protection officer at the Gateway Bridge in Brownsville refused to make an exception.

William Alfredo _________, a 47-year-old man from Venezuela, reported to a clinic in Matamoros on August 23, 2024 after having been released from a kidnapping.  On August 14^th, he had been en route to the Reynosa/Hidalgo port of entry to meet his CBP1 appointment when he was kidnapped on the Matamoros/Reynosa highway. He was beaten and tortured until his release on August 22.

His kidnappers held him for eight days. The physician who examined him noted that William was found to be “in shock, in a high state of anxiety, with evidence of having been severely beaten in different parts of his body. It appears that his right wrist has been broken. His buttocks had been slashed open.” The doctor noted other signs of torture, including widespread bruising around his neck. William reported difficulty swallowing, due to several episodes of strangulation. The doctor referred him for hospitalization, due to the high risk he has for death due to complications of strangulation (from blood clots resulting from the trauma the throttling caused).

Shelters on the Mexican side of the southern border depend upon the donations of others. If you would like to offer help, a donation can be sent either to Casa Lulu in Reynosa (Lulu has organized a shelter that offers care for people with difficult medical conditions) or to Ayudandoles a Triunfar, a trusted way station for migrants located in Matamoros. Community for Children offers support to both of these groups. Donations can be sent via https://www.angrytiasandabuelas.com/donate with a note indicating which you would like to help.

From the border

On August 8, 2024, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered Texas hospitals enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program to report the costs they incur for treating undocumented immigrants. No guidance was offered as to how hospitals must determine immigration status.

As the El Paso Times noted, “The order contradicts the Texas Department of State Health Services’ guidelines, which advise health care workers should not ask for immigration status information. The federal government does not require health care providers to collect immigration status from their patients.”

Physicians at University Medical Center said that Abbott’s order didn’t make sense, as most of the migrant patients treated there are in the United States legally “because border officials have already processed them, and they are awaiting their immigration hearings.”

The order seemed to be aimed at migrants who have entered during President Biden’s administration, but would also apply, in El Paso’s case, to the more than 52,000 undocumented residents living and working there whose property taxes support University Medical Center.

The governor’s order

    Directs hospitals and additional identified providers to collect information regarding the cost of medical care provided to undocumented immigrants, beginning by Nov. 1.

    Directs covered hospitals to report such data to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission quarterly, with initial submissions due March 1.

    Directs those hospitals to inform the patient that federal law mandates that any response to such questions will not affect patient care.

    Hospitals must report annually, beginning Jan. 1, 2026, to the governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House on the preceding year’s costs for medical care provided to undocumented immigrants.

Undocumented immigrants are ineligible to apply for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. According to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, undocumented immigrants may be eligible for Medicaid coverage for emergency treatment, but only under narrowly defined circumstances.

What do do:

Texas residents could weigh in with letters to the editor or opinion pieces, in addition to filing complaints with their elected officials. 

https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2024/08/12/abbott-orders-umc-to-report-costs-for-undocumented-immigrants/74765697007/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd6yv7231n1o

The astonishing, iconic Eddie Canales of the South Texas Human Rights Center died Wednesday (July 31, 2024) after a brief battle with cancer. He was a man of grit, stubbornly, lovingly devoted to justice. We will miss him.

Community for Children alumni will remember him as the man from the Falfurrias/Sarita Texas border patrol checkpoints who tirelessly loaded up fifty-gallon drums with jugs of water and placed them strategically in the south Texas desert. He organized a system for working with a forensics department from South Texas University to conduct DNA tests on the unidentified, cataloging the results with the hopes of offering closure to families whose loved ones disappeared as they made their way into the United States. His small office was deluged with calls from families from across the world seeking information about their loved ones. Most of the time, he had no answer for them. But occasionally, the terrible, sad news of a death could be shared.

Most importantly, Eddie refused to allow migrants to be disappeared into a never ending anonymity or written off as “the cost of doing border business.”

“They, WE, are human beings. We are bound together by that simple fact,” he told a visiting group of Community for Children participants.

“Look at this,” he continued, pulling out a couple of photos. “Here are two groups that we found last week. They died from the cold (this was in February). One group had enough heart to huddle together. They died, but they died together.”

“This group,” he said, showing a different photo, “Were scattered around. They died alone, a terrible thing.”

“I don’t want them to be alone in death,” he continued, “That is why I do this other, terrible part of the work, identifying the bodies. It is good work.”

We encourage you to support the work of Eddie’s organization at

https://southtexashumanrights.org

More about Eddie:

https://www.texasobserver.org/tyrants-foe-eddie-canales-saving-lives-undocumented-immigrants/

Rio Grande Valley, Texas

Border with Matamoros, Reynosa

 Since January of this year:

Men, women, and children travelling to the United States southern border near Matamoros and Reynosa, Mexico, are being regularly taken by organized criminals working with Mexican police. The kidnappers subject the family members to beatings, torture, and sexual assault. The attacks take place in front of the parents’ children; families report sexual assaults on children.

 Some details

Advocates in Matamoros and Reynosa (across the border from Brownsville and McAllen, Texas)  report the organized kidnapping of men, women, and children who arrive in these cities to honor their appointments. Organized crime members board buses just as they arrive at the city terminal, announce that they are part of a program to protect those who have a CBP1 appointment. Gang members ask those with a CBP1 appointment to raise their hands, and that they will be given a bracelet that will mark them for special protection. Those people are then removed from the bus and kidnapped. While they are being held, they are beaten and sexually assaulted.

 The results of a wrong-headed policy:

In 2019, the United States formally introduced the Migrant Protection Protocols (also known, more accurately, as “remain in Mexico”) for people seeking asylum at the US southern border. Contrary to national and international law, the policy requires people seeking asylum in the United States to apply for an appointment with Customs and Border Protection via a phone application. The wait time for this appointment is currently 5 to 6 months. The executive action has slowed the entry of asylum seekers into the United States but has created a situation of extreme suffering for vulnerable people.

Suggested responses:

Americans consider control of the southern border a major concern for the upcoming election. Policies that would create and encourage the abuse of vulnerable human beings, however, is unacceptable and unnecessary. That the abuse has evolved to include children is a clear sign that the criminals are acting with impunity. Voters may not be aware of this aspect of present efforts to manage the southern border.

We may have the chance to reset the agenda in the changing political landscape. Five things you can do to promote the humanitarian processing of immigrants at the border:

• • Contact your congressional member and urge a review of immigration policies from the perspective of child protection from harm and trauma. We may not be able to stop Mexican officials and cartels from abuse, but we can urge for officials to design policies that protect children.
• • Find out who in your community is helping immigrants and refugees and volunteer or donate.
• If you are a member of a faith community of any kind, discuss this with the members of the community from the perspective of your own faith.
• • Talk about your family’s immigration story
• • Assist the schools in your community if they are supporting newly migrated families
• • Think of how our signage and messaging is inclusive.
• • Vote

Postings from the Southern Border:

Horrible and tragic events are occurring around the world and play out on social media and in the news.  There are no words to describe the horrors.  The consequences, tragically, fall most heavily on the children.  In these monthly postings on our website, we cannot cover the world nor hope to address all the atrocities.  What we can do each month is offer a perspective from  that  corner of the world that we are most engaged in, the Rio Grande Valley and its  border with Mexico.  We hope that you will find it helpful….and perhaps at times, hopeful.

As a part of a team from Migrant Clinicians Network, Marsha has traveled to San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso, and McAllen/Brownsville, engaging with folks from  both sides of the border. She heard firsthand reports from organizations which offer medical care to recently arriving migrants. The groups shared the challenges and their successes of identifying people with medical needs, documenting their medical histories, referring them to proper care in the US, and maintaining critical follow-up care.  These good people also shared their visions of how a safer, and more compassionate and comprehensive welcoming infrastructure might be designed.  We have been inspired by these visions and heartened by the good people doing extraordinary, creative work in a time and place of great need.

The fiercely xenophobic and anti-migrant politics both in Mexico and the United States continue to create a dangerous situation not only for the migrants, but for the institutions seeking to serve them. In Matamoros, members of the infamous “Project Veritas” have attempted to infiltrate our sister organizations to create alarmist videos about migrants and those who assist them. One group created a weirdly worded document purportedly encouraging migrants to “vote for President Biden.” While patently fake, a copy of the document made it into a congressional hearing and was given semi-serious consideration.  In El Paso, the venerable Annunciation House is under attack by the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The state is demanding the organization’s records and accused the shelter and its leader, Ruben Garcia, with “harboring illegal aliens” charges that the attorney representing Annunciation House described as nonsense. The action by the Texas AG is clearly political but is an unwelcome and undeserved distraction from the organization’s important work of offering shelter to migrants.

This month, Mexico elected Claudia Sheinbaum as its new president. The Biden administration continues to pressure the Mexican government to slow migration to the border. Migrant advocates worry that Sheinbaum will lean into former President Lopez Obrador’s policies of increased detention and deportation of migrants. There is a tremendous amount of disinformation at work in both the US and Mexico that is fueling these policies, but the consequences are felt most heavily by the children and families.  The role that the corrupt Mexican immigration enforcement agency and its collaboration with criminal gangs is well-documented.

What we do know from recent firsthand experience south of the border is that there are vulnerable children and their mothers and fathers caught up in this maw of violence.  Sexual violence against entire families has been documented by Doctors Without Borders and other organizations on the ground.  In the first three months of this year, sexual violence, including that inflicted upon children, surpassed the total number reported in all of 2023. Stories shared with us speak of unthinkable cruelties.

Many families choose to migrate during the summer and so there will be migrants coming to different cities and towns across the country.  We feel the urgent need to educate destination communities throughout the US about how the trauma inflicted on these families has worsened.  Hopefully, we can respond more quickly and adequately.  Community for Children will continue to look for every opportunity to do our small part to make the world safer for children and their families.

Both major US political parties have weaponized the situation at the southern border. This past
week, the Biden administration issued executive orders which will dramatically affect
individuals and families on the Mexican side of the US border, and which will complicate the
already difficult process of providing care for people with serious medical conditions.

Here is a summary of the orders as they stand now:

     1. When the number of “encounters” with people crossing the border between ports of
        entry  (swimming the river, for example) exceeds an average of 2,500 a day for a week,
        the executive order goes into effect. It remains in effect until two weeks after the
        encounters average less than 1,500 a day.
     2. This will effectively result in a ban on those seeking asylum between ports of entry. The
        Trump administration tried this ban, but courts ruled it illegal as it violates section 208 of
        the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which guarantees due process for people
        asking for asylum on U.S. soil.
     3. While the new asylum ban is in effect, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will no
        longer proactively screen anyone for fear of return. Instead, they will expect individuals
        and families to “manifest” their fears. People fearing for their lives cannot be expected to
        state emphatically their fears to armed, uniformed officials. Those few who are deemed to
        have “manifested” a fear will be able to seek only limited, temporary protection in the
        United States, and only under a heightened standard.
    4. The new rule adds uncertainties and challenges to an already fraught experience for
        people arriving at the U.S.-Mexico to seek asylum.
    5. Doctors Without Borders (Mexico/Honduras) issued this statement: “By signing this
        executive order, President Biden has betrayed his promise to build a fair, safe, and
        humane immigration system. This order is not only contrary to US law and international
        l.aw, but also puts people’s lives and health at risk.

Today’s decision will trap vulnerable people, including young families, in unsafe cities in Mexico
and put them in grave danger. Along the migration route, and particularly in northern Mexico,
our teams providing care to migrants and asylum seekers have witnessed an increase in the
number of people seeking care following kidnappings, attacks, and sexual violence. . .

     6. Over the past three years, many medically vulnerable migrants were allowed to enter the
        asylum process and then able to access care. Community for Children and partners were
        able to facilitate that care for many of these individuals. This process is halted (for the
        moment) and the executive order will only heighten the chaos at the border, particularly
        harming the young and the ill.
     7. Rightly, people ask, “So what can we do?” We would quote from the Doctors Without
        Borders statement:

“Instead of enacting misguided measures that block asylum at the US border and create
humanitarian needs in Mexico, the Biden administration should focus on adequately resourcing
asylum processing at the US-Mexico border to improve its efficiency, coherence, and equity.”

For a comprehensive look at the effects of this executive order click here