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A2 UP FRONT
Monday 25 april 2022

Continued from Front sue asylum, including the small in scope. U.S. authori-
"It's a frightening experi- woman he saved and her ties stopped Nicaraguans
ence," Úbeda said after daughter. more than 56,000 times
a telephone call with his Nearly 2,200 asylum-seek- from December to March.
mother to consider wheth- ers, or 73% of those enrolled Criticisms of the policy are
er to return to Nicaragua through March, are from the same under Biden and
to reunite with her, his wife Nicaragua, with nearly all Trump: Migrants are terrified
and his daughter. He was the rest from Colombia, in dangerous Mexican bor-
perplexed that a vast ma- Cuba, Ecuador and Ven- der cities and it is extremely
jority of Nicaraguans are ezuela. Yet even among difficult to find lawyers from
released in the U.S. to pur- Nicaraguans, the policy is Mexico.

Emil Cardenas, of Colombia, waits at a shelter for migrants
Thursday, April 21, 2022, in Tijuana, Mexico. Associated Press

U.S. Homeland Security television facing rows of
Secretary Alejandro May- tables and plastic chairs
orkas, in an October order helps defeat boredom.
to end "Remain in Mexico," Many have been robbed
reluctantly conceded that and assaulted in Mexico,
the policy caused a drop in making them too scared
weak asylum claims under to leave the shelter. Some
Trump but said it did not jus- chat in small groups but
tify the harms. most keep to themselves,
Emil Cardenas, 27, said he lost in thought.
bloodied his foot and drank Carlos Humberto Castel-
his urine after running out of lano, who repaired cell-
water on a three-day hike phones in Colombia and
in mountains near San Di- wants to join family in New
ego with a smuggler who York, cried for two days af-
took a $10,000 installment ter being returned to Tijua-
toward his fee and stole his na to wait for a court date
passport, phone and other in San Diego. It cost him
identification. about $6,500 to fly to Mex-
Cardenas hoped to live ico and pay a smuggler to
near his brother, a Catholic cross the border, leaving
priest in New Jersey, while him in debt, he said.
seeking asylum but waits "I can't leave (the shelter)
at the Tijuana shelter for his because I don't know what
first hearing in San Diego on could happen," said Cas-
May 18. He is disheartened tellano, 23, recalling that
to see others at the shel- his smuggler took a photo
ter on their third or fourth of him. "Getting kidnapped
hearing."One has to find is the fear."
a way to get across," said The issue before the Su-
Cardenas, a Colombian preme Court is whether
who had attempted twice the policy is discretionary
to enter the U.S. "I'm think- and can be ended, as the
ing about what to do." Biden administration ar-
While waiting for hearings, gues, or is the only way to
men at the shelter are at- comply with what Texas
tached to smartphones — and Missouri say is a con-
reading, watching videos gressional command not to
and occasionally calling release the migrants in the
friends and family. A large United States.q