JUAREZ, Mexico (Border Report) – It took Jose six months to reach the U.S. border from Ecuador. On Tuesday, he was welcomed by rows of barbed wire on the Rio Grande and news that President Biden has placed limits on asylum-seekers who come over without an appointment.
“It was difficult to get here, and now they’re closing the border on us. What are we to do? I have a 7-month-old baby, I am out of money. I cannot survive much longer,” he said.
Like Jose, several migrants interviewed on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande expressed shock and despair when a Border Report camera crew informed them of Biden’s new executive order to close the border between ports of entry when illegal immigration peaks above 2,500 people a day.
The move is meant to reduce unlawful border crossings and allow immigration agencies to properly vet asylum-seekers. GOP lawmakers say it’s a political ploy by Biden to show skeptical voters he’s tough on illegal immigration – after three years of inaction and more than 7 million unlawful border crossings.
A family from Guatemala sits inside Esperanza para la Familia migrant shelter in Juarez, Mexico. The family was unaware of a new executive order by President Joe Biden limiting illegal crossings. This and other families at the shelter say they will wait to get a lawful appointment at a port of entry to present their asylum claim. (Courtesy ProVideo)
Migrant advocates say the sudden get-tough approach will deny due process to lawful asylum-seekers and place them in the hands of ruthless transnational criminal organizations.
“Every decision the U.S. takes on immigration has repercussions on the border,” said the Rev. Gigio Heredia, head of Esperanza para la Familia migrant shelter in Juarez. “They are definitely prey for organized crime. We know they are vulnerable. We’ve seen many cases in which they have been robbed of their belongings, they have been violated, they have been threatened. It is definitely risky for them.”
Heredia said keeping migrants who arrive in Juarez by the dozens or the hundreds every day from crossing into the U.S. will place burdens on a border city that doesn’t have resources to spare.
“We have seen this over and over. When migrants come here and find the door closed and obstacles to get to the place that they left their homes for, it’s a blow to their morale. They get desperate when they find so many laws, so many restrictions, and they often make bad decisions,” Heredia said.
Alexander Martinez, a native of Venezuela, pleaded with Biden to delay implementation of the executive order – which takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.
“Joe Biden should give an opportunity for the people who are on the way,” he said. “There are a lot of people coming, give us the opportunity to get across. I know there are good people and bad people – let them sort us out. But give us the opportunity to get in,” Martinez said.
Fransimar, a Venezuelan mom, on Tuesday held her daughter near the shade of a shrub on the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande. Biden’s executive order was news she did not want to hear.
“It wouldn’t be fair, we have suffered so many shortcomings for them to do that to us. It wouldn’t be fair,” she said. “It has been hard with the baby, now there’s more (barbed wire). We cannot go across but we want to be allowed in because the baby is sick.”
At Esperanza para la Familia shelter, some migrants said they have come to terms with having to wait a long time to be admitted into the United States.
Dennis Ramos, from Guatemala, said he’s hunkering down for however many months it takes to get an appointment at a U.S. port of entry through the CBP One app.
“It’s better to do things the right way, legally, rather than place yourself and your family at risk, to place your children at risk on top of trains,” Ramos said. “The advantage is you get into the other side without having to hide from anybody. I am not going to risk (walking) across. It will be easier for me” to wait for an appointment.
ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.
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