October 22, 2020

U.S. gov’t ‘dumps’ migrants in Mexican border towns

topic:	Refugees and Asylum
located:	USA, Mexico
editor:	Yair Oded

A recent investigation by The Intercept reveals that the U.S. Border Patrol has been dumping hundreds of migrants in the remote Mexican border town of Sasabe, where migrants are vulnerable to organised crime. Eye witnesses who spoke to The Intercept claim that Border Patrol agents have been abandoning anywhere between 100 - 120 migrants a day in Sasabe despite the town’s lack of resources. This practice could raise the already staggering death toll of migrants trying to cross the southern border into the U.S.

Sasabe, a small town with a population of just over 2,000 residents, is located south of the border with Arizona and is considered to be one of the most dangerous areas in the Sonoran desert. Historically, Sasabe did not constitute a dumping destination for U.S. Border Patrol agents returning migrants and asylum seekers back into Mexico after apprehending them on U.S. soil. The advent of COVID-19, however, has led to an expansion of expulsion of migrants back into Mexico, as the U.S. government cites health considerations as an excuse to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration. 

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the White House’s assertion that acceleration in deportations of migrants at the border stemmed from a request by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was in fact the result of pressure applied by Stephen Miller, a close adviser of the president who is notoriously anti-immigration. 

While migrants have been repeatedly dropped off at various border cities in Mexico by U.S. Border Patrol agents, their expulsion to Sasabe is a new phenomenon that is directly tied to the sudden surge in the volume of deportations. And although the lives of migrants in any of these cities are under threat, the community at Sasabe has even fewer resources to care from them and protect them from danger. 

“I understand when there are tons of people in Nogales and in Tijuana and in Sonoyta,” Dora Rodriguez, a humanitarian aid worker who volunteers in Sasabe told The Intercept, “But they have resources — even if they’re limited, there are some resources. But in Sasabe, it’s nothing.” This has led to an overcrowding of Central American migrants in Sasabe  who face hunger and homelessness and are at risk of falling prey to organised crime gangs operating uninhibitedly in the area. Their plight is even further exacerbated by the physical exhaustion they endure throughout the arduous journey in the desert. 

“We’ve got hungry people being dumped into this community by the hundreds,” Gail Kocourek, a volunteer with Tucson Samaritans, told The Intercept. “They came in beat-up looking,” commented another volunteer, “They didn’t just cross and walk for half a day.”

“We believe that Border Patrol is getting away with these horrible deportation numbers because no one knows,” Rodriguez told The Intercept. “It is really easy for them to just dump people there and that’s it. Nobody says anything.”

For decades, the U.S. government has practiced the brutal method of “prevention through deterrence,” whereby the scorching desert heat is being weaponised against immigrants trying to cross the southern border. As part of this method, which dates back to the Clinton era, migrants are purposely steered by Border Patrol into the desert’s most arid regions - a journey many do not survive. In some cases, Border Patrol agents intentionally wait several days before apprehending the migrants in order to increase their exhaustion levels and render them more vulnerable to arrest. 

The recent increase in expulsions, combined with militarised crackdowns on humanitarian aid camps, increased presence of Border Patrol agents in the Sonoran desert, and record-breaking temperatures in the Arizona area have either directly contributed or could exacerbate an already alarming rise in migrant deaths. 

The administration’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy, which went into effect in 2019 and dictates that migrants must await their court hearings in Mexico, has been struck down by federal courts and is now awaiting review by the Supreme Court. Despite the very tangible evidence adduced to prove the myriad life-threatening risks this policy presents to migrants, the Supreme Court has chosen to allow it to remain in effect until a ruling by the Court is rendered. 

Image by Thomas Cizauskas (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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