Refugees hope the evidence they bring is enough to cross

More than 700 migrants celebrated this Sunday in a religious ceremony at a Tijuana shelter the imminent end of the measure known as Title 42, which for more than three years reduced to a minimum the possibilities of requesting asylum for migrants at the border.

“We have a normal religious service, like any Sunday, but this time we give thanks because Title 42 ends and we notice that migrants begin to go faster to their asylum appointments,” Pastor Albert Rivera, director of the Agape shelter, told La Opinion World Mission.

“Do you want me to give you good news?” the pastor asked the migrants who filled the church and a gallery that the families use as a dining room.

“We are a few days away from Title 42 finally ending,” the priest told hundreds who responded jubilantly.

“But there is more,” Rivera continued, “this morning they called me from the United States consulate in Tijuana to confirm that CBP is responding to appointments faster and that the CBP One application is already working correctly.”

His church was filled with hubbub, and comments like “praise”, “finally”, “thank God”.

CBP is the Customs and Border Protection office, and CBP One is the name of an application, which is now the only way in which migrants can request an appointment with border authorities, to go on to present their arguments and evidence that if they are Those who return to their countries of origin face dangers, even death.

“We are going to give thanks and now we are going to be careful in presenting to the authorities the evidence that you fled to save your lives,” said the pastor.

In the last two weeks, the shelter has noted a transition from Title 42, which officially concludes on Thursday, May 11, to another measure that will replace Title 8 from May 12, which is the asylum process for migrants who they prove that they have a “credible fear” of returning to their places of origin.

Trump imposed Title 42 in March 2020 in the context of the pandemic as a justification for eliminating the asylum process. The measure annulled the fact that migrants who crossed the border turned themselves in to request asylum to federal agents, who immediately returned them to Mexican territory, presumably because they were potential carriers of Covid 19.

“There was never scientific evidence that we, the dark-skinned Latin American and African migrants, carried the virus and others did not,” Rivera said, “the measure was not only racist, but also very unfair.”

Between mid-March and late April of last year, President Joe Biden's administration allowed at least 118,000 Ukrainian refugees to cross from Tijuana to San Diego without imposing Title 42 on any of them; As Ukrainians fled war, thousands of migrants fleeing cartel and gang violence had been waiting for years.

Faced with numerous criticisms, the administration initiated a program of “exceptions to Title 42”, which allows the asylum process to continue in the country, mainly for migrants in vulnerable conditions, such as pregnancies at risk, sick children, or because they are persecuted to the border. .

Claudia, a mother of a family from Michoacán at the Agape shelter, told La Opinion that she has with her some evidence of the reasons why she fled with her children, but she asked her relatives to send her other evidence to prepare when the title begins. 8 on Friday.

The evidence, he said, will show why they had to flee.

“They gave us one day to leave the house or they would kill us and take my child. I believe that when the United States authorities see the photos that they are going to send me of how our house was left, those signs of violence, they will fully understand why we need to request asylum,” the lady said.

Claudia has relatives north of Los Angeles and south of San Jose, “there are several families, any of them can give us a place to stay for a while, while we rebuild our lives.”

José, from Guatemala, hopes that the evidence he has brought with him since he left his country almost a year ago will be enough to start his asylum process.

The CBP does not have public figures on the number of people who were rejected under Title 42, but some organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), estimate that some two million people ended up being prevented from applying for asylum.

The authorities include these arrests and immediate rejections as “encounters”, mixed with those of undocumented immigrants.