COVID Travel Restrictions Keep Asylum Seekers as Targets in Mexico
Just yesterday it was reported that 15 Guatemalan migrants’ charred bodies were found near the Mexican-American border, likely caught up in the turf wars of the cartels. The reality is that asylum seekers from Central America are targets in Mexico. They are often kidnapped and held for ransom as the cartels believe that can get money from their families in the United States. They are also particularly prone to sexual assault and robbery as they are seen as more vulnerable. There is much discrimination among the larger Mexican population as well. One of our friends who is at the border and is from Central America described how she does not want to say anything in public in the border town as people will hear her accent and treat her in a hostile manner.
Last week, President Biden ended the official policy of Remain in Mexico (the Migration Protection Protocol). However, migrants are still in Mexico due to the COVID restrictions. Thus for all practical purposes there is still a Remain in Mexico policy in place. I understand if the Biden administration cannot bring all those who were under MPP into the country the first week, but there needs to be a real plan in place for this to occur within the next month.
We cannot allow asylum seekers to anguish in horrific and dangerous conditions at the Mexican border due to misplaced COVID concerns. COVID is in every neighborhood, school, and store in our nation. Let’s not act like stopping a couple hundred thousand desperate people into the country is going to be key in fighting COVID. Yes, have people take a test before the enter, but it cannot be used as an excuse for human rights violations. I know Biden wants to take COVID more seriously than the previous irresponsible administration, but this cannot be done on the backs of the most vulnerable.
I still see a lot of people talking about children in cages. While the detention practices at our border are horrific, in many ways the Remain in Mexico policy is even worse and puts people in much greater danger. Under Biden it is the responsibility of Americans to put even more pressure on the administration than they did under Trump, precisely for the fact that the Biden Administration claims what happened with the Remain in Mexico policy defied our national values. We cannot let those values continued to be denied in the name of COVID, which unfortunately will take months(and with some of the news of the new strains-even years) to get under control. If we shut off our borders to asylum seekers until then, the Biden Administration will be remembered as continuing the human rights violations of the Trump administration.
