Immigrants fear family separation at the California-Mexico border

SAN DIEGO, California – Parents stationed at the border between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California, said that the Border Patrol (CBP) allowed their wives and children to enter, but not theirs, which means for activists consulted a new form of “separation of immigrant families”.

“They have not let us pass, only our ladies, our women, have passed,” said Colombian Leonardo Acevedo.

The migrant is part of hundreds who are camping between the two parallel walls of this border region, amid the uncertainty of the end of the application of Title 42, which authorizes the expedited expulsion of undocumented immigrants, scheduled for May 11.

The Colombian explained that the Border Patrol opened a door in the second wall for some thirty women with children to enter California, but that the men stayed behind and did not know where they were taking them.

“We stay here until they let us through because we want to be among the first to cross when Title 42 is removed,” he explained.

Pedro Rios, the director of the American Friends Services Committee, said that the border authorities are probably trying to help people they consider vulnerable, women and children, because the weather has been drizzling and cold winds these days.

However, he regretted that the fact that families are separated contributes to greater confusion among migrants.

Another Colombian who refrained from providing his name said he did not know the name of the place where he is now. “Here between the two walls, I'm not sure if it's Tijuana or San Diego,” he said.

He explained that he planned to surrender to border officials seeking refuge because “they already took Title 42 away.”

Meanwhile, Ríos and two volunteers delivered bottles of water and some food to the migrants this Thursday through the bars of the second wall.

“They are in a very difficult situation,” he said, pointing out that the migration process is very long and migrants must wait outdoors and with almost no food.

“Some of them stay for several days, because the Border Patrol process to pick them up is very slow, and they give an opportunity first to people who are possibly in the most vulnerable situation,” Ríos said.

Among them he mentioned minors, single women with children, and injured or sick people.

“This means that men stay longer, and of course, they separate families,” he emphasizes.

“Those who stay here don't know what happens to the people they took, where they went or if they will see them again” once they cross the border, he adds.

Some groups of migrants have set up improvised plastic tents to shelter from the rain and dew that have fallen at dawn in recent weeks.

Small groups of people crossed the border through this place, but according to migratory organizations, these days they have increased.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has warned that the border is not open, while anticipating an increase in apprehensions upon completion of Title 42.

The Border Patrol, which has not responded to EFE about the separation of families at that point in San Diego County, has indicated that so far this fiscal year, which began last October, it has detained more than 109,000 in the sector. people.

Meanwhile, the director of one of the largest migrant shelters in Tijuana (Mexico), Pastor Albert Rivera, said in San Diego that the border authorities are bringing forward the end of Title 42.

“What we have been seeing for the past couple of weeks is that migrants who have crossed the border for humanitarian reasons are now being asked to show that they have credible reasons to flee their countries and request asylum in the United States, and those who cannot prove their fear, they return them to Mexico so that they gather the evidence,” he declared.

In the Agape Mision Mundial shelter that Rivera directs, there are “about ten people who had already crossed the border through humanitarian exceptions to Title 42, but since they began to be asked to credibly demonstrate that they were fleeing out of fear and had no documents or evidence, They returned them,” he said.