REYNOSA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th April, 2021) US President Joe Biden's lax stance on immigration has given false hope to hundreds of thousands of asylum-seeking migrants from Central America and Mexico who find themselves turned away at the border, some very desperate after being displaced by natural disasters in their home countries.
A Sputnik correspondent in the Mexican border town of Reynosa witnessed close to a hundred asylum-seeking migrants sheltering at the Las Americas Plaza, a park located walking distance from the US port of entry in Hidalgo, Texas. Many of the migrants gathered at this park had been turned away at the US port of entry after presenting themselves to immigration officials wanting to make a claim for asylum.
The town of Reynosa is in the dangerous Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The US State Department advises people not to travel to the area because of crime, kidnapping and heavily armed cartel members that operate with impunity in the border region.
"We've heard that he [ Biden], was supporting the people [migrants], that's why I took the risk," Marina Isabel Fuentes, 43, of El Salvador, told Sputnik.
Biden has said he reversed the Trump's immigration policies because they were unwarranted, inhumane and inconsistent with America's values. However, the Biden administration has tried to discourage migrants from coming to the United States by placing more than 17,000 radio advertisements in Central and South America since January 21 in Spanish, Portuguese, and six indigenous languages, reaching an estimated 15 million individuals.
"My plan is to go back [to US], I feel that being on the other side, I'm not going to be in danger anymore. My goal is to cross back, I'm going to cross the river. I'm going to pay someone to help me cross the river," Fuentes said. "I thought they'd let us pass so we could come out of this hell, but it turned out they turned me away and they don't let me give them an explanation."
Around 570,000 migrants have been turned away at the US-Mexico border since October, according to US government data.
US Custom and Border Protection (CBP) saw a 70 percent jump in apprehensions on the southern border in March. The 172,331 migrant encounters recorded represents the highest monthly total in more than two decades, with the Biden administration on pace to top the previous annual record set in 2019 of over 977,000 apprehensions.
CLIMATE CHANGES PLAYS ROLE IN MIGRATION SURGE
Juan Ortiz Cardenas, 48, of Honduras, and his 11-year-old son fled Honduras due to poverty that was exacerbated by recent hurricanes that ravaged the local economy. Two category four hurricanes - Eta and Iota - hit Central America last November, leading to severe flooding and landslides that displaced more than 150,000 Hondurans.
"The situation is hard in Honduras, my son and I came over here to see if they would give him an opportunity because his brothers are in the United States," Ortiz told Sputnik. "My son is 11 years old and when I presented myself to US immigration, I thought that they were going to let me pass, but they didn't tell us anything, they just took our fingerprints and dropped us off at the bridge."
Ortiz and his son traveled for 25 days to reach the border in Reynosa, unaware that asylum-seeking migrant families would be turned away at this time under the Biden administration.
"I didn't know that," Ortiz said. "Imagine what would have happened if I sent my son [to border alone] and I would've been left hoping he crossed but what if they turned him away and he was alone here [in Reynosa]."
Several migrants were able to afford flights back to their countries of origin, but others are stuck in Reynosa unsure of what to do next, Ortiz said.
Sarai Velasquez, 35, of Honduras, also made the decision to migrate to the United States as a result of the hurricane that hit last fall.
"We came because of the catastrophe in Honduras, we lost everything, we were left without a house," Velasquez told Sputnik. "We lost everything except important documents. That's why we migrated to this country [United States] but they didn't give us an opportunity to be there."
Pablo Escribano, the Regional Thematic Specialist in Migration, Environment and Climate Change in the Regional Office for Central America, North America and the Caribbean of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told Sputnik that the impact of climate change on Central American livelihoods is projected to worsen.
"On these movements from Honduras, Guatemala, I would say that [climate change] is an important part of the migration movement," Escribano said. "I think we're also going to see more and more in the future - livelihoods get degraded and people cannot feed themselves."
Climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction are key programs in the climate change strategy, he added.
"What we're seeing is an increase in the drought scenarios. The area that we often call the dry corridor which spans around El Salvador, Honduras, and parts of Guatemala, we're seeing increased episodes of drought," Escribano said. "We should also see in some places an increased frequency of... hurricanes and tropical storms. Last hurricane season was a very active one."
IMMIGRATION ACTIVIST SAYS MIGRANTS BETTER OFF IN US CUSTODY
Raquel Martinez, 64, stood near a narrow rural road on a small hill overlooking a massive tent camp facility holding up to 4,100 migrants, mostly children, in the Texas border town of Donna.
"I feel like they're safer here [US side in migrant holding facilities] than they are in Mexico, I'm sorry, but that's the reality," Martinez, a local resident who volunteers helping migrants in the United States, told Sputnik.
A Sputnik correspondent witnessed an unmarked white bus full of migrant children enter the gated facility, which appeared to have more large tent structures under construction in order to expand capacity.
About 48,500 migrant children have illegally crossed into the United States alone, without a parent, since October, according to the data. In March, a total of 18,890 migrant children were apprehended, marking a 100 percent increase compared to February.
"As a local... I'm grateful they're here and I would do anything to help them come out and go on their way to their families, which is what they're all doing, nobody stays here," Martinez said. "In the last couple of years I have never seen a family stay in the [Rio Grande] Valley, never, they all go up. That's the ultimate goal, it's to get them reunited with their families."
According to data released by CPB on Wednesday, the United States has more than 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children in Federal custody, an increase of over 2,000 from the previous week.
