The restrictions announced by the Biden Administration on asylum applications have meant that thousands of people have to wait in precarious improvised camps in the Mexican capital for an appointment to process their request with the US authorities.
“That’s it, friend! Ready!” Eliezer López exclaimed as he jumped with such contagious joy that his friends began to come out of nearby tents to celebrate with him. López, a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant in Mexico City, had reasons to rejoice: after several frustrated attempts, he was finally able to get an appointment to apply asylum in USA.
He is one of thousands of asylum seekers whose journey to the United States has taken them to the Mexican capital, until recently the southernmost point from which they can register to make an appointment to apply for asylum through the mobile application of the United States Customs and Border Protection, known as CBP One.
Since June, when The Biden Administration announced important restrictions for asylum seekersthe application became one of the only ways to start the asylum request on the southwest border.
US asylum policy has fueled proliferation of informal camps in all the mexican capitalwhere thousands of people They wait weeks, even months, in the limboliving in improvised, crowded settlements, with a sanitary situation and precarious living conditions.
The Mexican capital becomes a temporary destination for thousands of asylum seekers in the US.
Historically, Mexico City has not been a stopover for northbound migrants, who try to cross the country quickly to reach the US border. But delays in getting an appointment with US authorities, together with him danger that devastates the border cities of northern Mexico controlled by cartels and the increasing repression undertaken by Mexican authorities against migrants, have combined to transform the Mexican capital from a transit point to a temporary destination for thousands of people.
Some camps of migrants have been dismantled by immigration authorities or abandoned over time. Others, like the one López has lived in for the past few months, remain standing.
Like López, many asylum seekers have chosen to wait for their appointment in the somewhat safer capital, although it also presents its own challenges. The shelter capacity es limited And, unlike big American cities like Chicago and New York, which rushed last winter to find housing for arriving migrants, the Mexico Citythese are mainly found abandoned to their fate.
Social organizations denounce an “externalization” of asylum procedures
Andrew Bahena, coordinator of the Los Angeles Immigrant Human Rights Coalition (CHIRLA), said that until the end of 2023 many migrants were contained in cities in southern Mexico such as Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala.
Many tried to hide their location to circumvent CBP One’s geographic limits, but when U.S. authorities caught on, more migrants began heading to the Mexico City to make your appointments from theresaid. As a result, there has been an increase in the migrant population living in the camps in Mexico City.
“We talk about this like border externalization and it is something that United States and Mexico have been jointly implementing for years“Baena said. “The CBP One app is probably one of the best examples of that today. These people They are asylum seekersthey are not homeless people who live in Mexico,” he added.
Impossible to access a home
When López first arrived in Mexico City at the end of April, he thought about rent a roombut he realized that It was not an option. She earned 450 pesos (23 dollars or 21 euros) a day working three times a week in a market. The rent was 3,000 pesos a week ($157 or 142 euros) per person to share a room with strangers, an arrangement that has become common in Mexican cities with migrant populations.
“The camp is like a refugio“Lopez said. Migrants can share space with people they know, avoid curfews and strict shelter rules, and potentially stay longer if necessary.
The camps are a labyrinth of tents and tarps. Some call their space a “ranchito,” or small ranch, assembled with wood, cardboard, plastic sheets, blankets and whatever they can find to protect them from the cold mountain air and the intense summer rains that hit the city.
Living conditions and uncertainty in the camps affect mental health
Israel Resendiz, coordinator of the mobile team of Doctors Without Borderssaid that the uncertainty of life in the camps weighs heavily on the mental health of asylum seekers. “It is not the same as a person waiting for her appointment (…) to be able to get a hotel, rent a room or have money for food. Most people do not have those resources.”
The Secretary of Inclusion and Social Welfare and the Secretary of the Interior in Mexico City did not respond to the AP agency’s request for comment on the situation in the camps. Press representatives of Clara Brugada, the incoming mayor of the Mexican capital, said that the issue should be discussed first at the federal level.
ADVERTISINGMeanwhile, Sonia Rodríguez, a 50-year-old Salvadoran resident in one of the camps, has tried to make her “little ranch” as dignified as possible. There she has a grill for cooking, bunk beds and television. But her look turns gloomy when she remembers that she carries ten months living in a makeshift camp that it is not his house, without his things and far from his normal life.
