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A6 U.S. NEWS
Monday 20 January 2020

Illegal crossings plunge as U.S. extends policy across border

By ELLIOT SPAGAT through a neighboring Cal-
YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — Adolfo ifornia sector. Those inter-
Cardenas smiles faintly at viewed by The Associated
the memory of traveling Press waited up to a week
with his 14-year-old son in Yuma, though Border
from Honduras to the U.S.- Patrol policy says people
Mexico border in only nine generally shouldn't be held
days, riding buses and pay- more than 72 hours.
ing a smuggler $6,000 to Volunteers visit Mexicali
ensure passage through shelters to offer bus tickets
highway checkpoints. or a two-hour ride to Tijua-
Father and son walked na, along with hotel rooms
about 10 minutes in Arizo- for the night before court
na's stifling June heat be- appearances in San Diego.
fore surrendering to border Cardenas, who worked
agents. Instead of being construction in the Hondu-
released with paperwork ran capital of Tegucigalpa,
to appear in immigra- said he feels unsafe in Mex-
tion court in Dallas, where ico and that it was impos-
Cardenas hopes to live with sible to escape gangs in
a cousin, they were bused Honduras. "They are in ev-
more than an hour to wait ery corner," he said.
in the Mexican border city In this Jan. 10, 2020, photo, a snack vendor stands on a street as a cyclist goes by in San Luis Rio Enma Florian of Guatema-
of Mexicali. Colorado, Mexico, leading to a border crossing in San Luis, Ariz. Months earlier, asylum seekers la, who crossed the border
"It was a surprise. I never waited in line in tents in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. illegally with her 16- and
imagined this would hap- Associated Press 13-year-old sons near Yuma
pen," Cardenas, 39, said in August, doesn't know if
while waiting at a Mexicali Illegal crossings in west- until three months ago. difficult to find. she would stay in Mexico or
migrant shelter for his fifth ern Arizona have swung In late November, the ad- The American Civil Liber- return to Guatemala if de-
court appearance in San sharply before, and there ministration began busing ties Union and other groups nied asylum in the U.S. The
Diego, on Jan. 24. are several reasons for the asylum-seekers five hours asked to put the policy on grant rate for Guatemalan
Illegal crossings plummet- recent drop. But Anthony from Tucson to El Paso, hold during a legal chal- asylum-seekers was 14% for
ed across the border after Porvaznik, chief of the Bor- Texas, for court and deliv- lenge. The U.S. 9th Circuit the 12-month period that
the Trump administration der Patrol's Yuma sector, ering them to Mexican au- Court of Appeals heard ended Sept. 30, compared
made more asylum-seekers said the so-called Migra- thorities there to wait. This arguments Oct. 1 and has with 18% for Salvadorans,
wait in Mexico for hearings tion Protection Protocols month, officials scrapped not indicated when it will 13% for Hondurans and 11%
in U.S. court. The drop has have been a huge deter- the buses by returning mi- decide. for Mexicans.
been most striking on the rent, based on agents' in- grants to Mexico near Tuc- On Tuesday, critics scored "The dream was to reach
western Arizona border, a terviews with people ar- son and requiring them to a partial victory in a sepa- the United States," she said,
pancake-flat desert with a rested. travel on their own to El rate lawsuit when a federal holding out hope that she
vast canal system from the "Their whole goal was to Paso. judge in San Diego said will settle with relatives in
Colorado River that turns be released into the Unit- More than 55,000 asylum- asylum-seekers who are Maryland.
bone-dry soil into fields of ed States, and once that seekers were returned to being returned to Mexico While illegal crossings have
melons and wheat and or- was taken off the shelf for Mexico to wait for hear- from California must have nosedived in Yuma, asy-
chards of dates and lem- them, and they couldn't ings through November, 10 access to hired attorneys lum-seekers still sign up on
ons. be released into the Unit- months after the policy was before and during key in- a waiting list to enter the
Arrests in the Border Pa- ed States anymore, then introduced in San Diego. terviews to determine if U.S. at an official crossing in
trol's Yuma sector nearly that really diminished the The immigrants were from they can stay in the U.S. San Luis, Arizona. U.S. Cus-
hit 14,000 in May, when amount of traffic that more than three dozen while their cases proceed. toms and Border Protection
the policy to make asy- came through here," Por- countries, and nearly 2 out Immigration judges hear calls the Mexican shelter
lum-seekers wait in Mexico vaznik said. of 3 were Guatemalan or cases in San Diego and that manages the list to say
took effect there. By Oc- In the neighboring Tucson Honduran, according to El Paso, while other asy- how many asylum claims it
tober, they fell 94%, to less sector, arrests rose each Syracuse University's Trans- lum-seekers report to tent will process each day. The
than 800, and have stayed month from August to De- actional Records Access camps in the Texas cities shelter estimates the wait
there since, making Yuma cember, bucking a border- Clearinghouse. Mexicans of Laredo and Brownsville, at three to four months.
the second-slowest of the wide trend and making it are exempt. where they are connected Angel Rodriguez, one of
agency's nine sectors on the second-busiest corri- Critics say the policy is un- to judges by video. 143 Cubans on the shelter's
the Mexican border, just dor after Texas' Rio Grande fair and exposes asylum- In Yuma, asylum-seekers waiting list of 1,484 people,
ahead of the perennially Valley. Porvaznik attributes seekers to extreme vio- are held in short-term cells has had bright moments in
quiet Big Bend sector in Tucson's spike to the ab- lence in Mexican border until space opens up to Mexico, including a beauti-
Texas. sence of the policy there cities, where attorneys are be returned to Mexicali ful Christmas meal.q