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A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 16 March 2019
Policy shift means uneasy wait in Mexico for asylum seekers

By ELLIOT SPAGAT ing down there and provid-
Associated Press ing assistance in a way that
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — is legal but not practicing
Juan Carlos Perla says he law in Mexico," said Nadine
spent his first night in the Toppozada, the group's di-
U.S. in a cold immigration rector of refugee and immi-
cell with 21 others at the na- grant services.
tion's busiest border cross- Initial asylum hearings in
ing. Fluorescent lights were downtown San Diego are
always on in the basement scheduled within 45 days,
holding area. Space was so and administration officials
tight that he laid his sleep- hope to put them on a fast
ing mat next to a toilet. track. When their day ar-
The 36-year-old from El Sal- rives, asylum seekers are
vador soon reunited with his told to report to the border
wife and three sons, ages 6, crossing for temporary ad-
4 and 10 months, who were mission to the U.S. for a bus
in another cell, and the ride to court.
family returned to Tijuana, Dr. Juan Ramon Molina, a
Mexico, to await asylum primary care physician in
hearings in San Diego. They Honduras' Nacaome Val-
were one of the first families ley, told a CBP officer that
to contend with a radical government forces twice
U.S. policy shift that makes tried to kidnap him for his
asylum seekers stay in Mex- role in an opposition po-
ico while their cases wind litical party and that he did
through immigration courts. not seek asylum in Guate-
Looking rattled hours later, mala or Mexico because
Perla said he would skip his In this March 5, 2019, image, Ruth Aracely Monroy helps her son, Carlos, with his jacket among he has family in the U.S.
court date and instead set- tents set up inside a shelter for migrants in Tijuana, Mexico. They are in Los Angeles.
tle in Mexico. Associated Press Houston, Chicago, Detroit,
"Our fear is that we lose our Washington, D.C., Miami
case and get deported" from San Diego in the first and their children from pre- settled with Alvarado's and West Virginia.
back to El Salvador, Perla six weeks. The administra- vious relationships stayed cousin in Houston. He says Molina, 35, has been look-
said. "That's suicide for me, tion expanded its "Migrant at a Tijuana shelter for he cannot work in Tijuana ing online for legal help at
my wife and my children." Protection Protocols" strate- about six weeks while wait- because he has no one to a Tijuana migrant shelter
Perla told a U.S. Customs gy on Monday to a second ing to be called on an in- care for his son. ahead of his April 8 court
and Border Protection of- border crossing, in Calexi- formal list of asylum seekers Many immigrants' struggles date and says he fears
ficer that he and his fam- co, California, and officials seeking to enter the U.S. at are compounded by the that his political adversar-
ily abandoned their small say the practice will grow the San Diego crossing. To scarcity of legal advice. ies will track him down. Still,
bakery in the Salvadoran along the entire border. earn money, Alvarado un- Customs officials offer a list he says it is better than be-
capital after he missed a The shift comes as more loaded ceramic tiles from of potential legal aid pro- ing detained in the U.S.,
monthly extortion payment asylum-seeking families delivery trucks in Tijuana viders, but Alvarado said where he spent two days
to the 18th Street gang. from Guatemala, Hondu- while his partner watched his calls to those groups in a basement cell at the
They beat him and threat- ras and El Salvador arrive their boys, ages 10 and 7. elicited no response. Al San Diego crossing that he
ened to kill him and his fam- at the U.S. border with Mex- After claiming asylum, Al- Otro Lado, a Los Angeles- said was overcrowded and
ily if he failed to pay the ico. varado was separated based legal group working cold.
next installment, according Border Patrol agents in San from his family and put in out of a building in down- "The treatment was inhu-
to an interview transcript. Diego have been told to an all-male cell with fluo- town Tijuana, gave him an mane," he said.
If his family's experience is target people who speak rescent lights that were overview of U.S. asylum Before he gave up and
a sign, the policy may be Spanish and come from always on and made him procedures but no individ- returned to Mexico, Perla
having its intended effect Latin America, according lose track of night and ual advice. had arranged for a pas-
of discouraging asylum to a memo obtained by day. He told a CBP officer For immigration attorneys, tor in Berkeley, California,
claims, which have helped The Associated Press. The the next day that that he it can be difficult to extend to give him a room, find
fuel a court backlog of memo says pregnant wom- was "afraid of paramilitary help to people who are on legal advice and arrange
more than 800,000 cases en and LGBT migrants are groups in Honduras" and the other side of the bor- schooling for his children. In
and forced people to wait to be spared. The admin- that he fled with his fam- der. Tijuana, his family is living in
years for a ruling. Trump istration has said all along ily after he discovered the The American Bar Associa- a tent inside a migrant shel-
administration officials say that Mexicans are exempt, head of his farming collec- tion's Immigration Justice ter.
they want to deter weak as are children traveling tive was stealing money Project of San Diego can- "My case is a lost cause," he
claims, freeing up judges alone. and someone threatened not afford to go to Tijuana said.q
to consider more deserving Waiting in Tijuana is an un- to kill one of his children, and will not pursue grants
cases. anticipated setback for according to an interview without insurance and li-
A federal judge in San asylum seekers who had transcript. cense to practice in Mexi-
Francisco has scheduled hoped to be released in Alvarado, 29, who came co, said Adela Mason, the
a March 22 hearing to the U.S. while awaiting a with a police report and group's director.
consider a request by ad- judge's ruling. In Mexico, other documents explain- Catholic Charities of the
vocacy groups to halt the they lack the family con- ing work-related threats, San Diego Diocese had to
practice. nections they have in the was sent back to Tijuana overcome worries about
Change is being intro- U.S, and some say they feel with his 10-year-old, while safety and not having li-
duced slowly — 240 people unsafe. his wife and her son were cense.
were returned to Tijuana Selvin Alvarado, his partner released in the U.S. and "It's a fine line between go-