JUAREZ, Mexico (Border Report) – Some shelters are running low on food and personal hygiene products, as a law enforcement crackdown in Mexico and new restrictive asylum policies in the U.S. are forcing migrants to remain in Juarez longer than they expected.
The Rev. Juan Fierro has seen the migrant population grow by more than 50 percent in the past two weeks at Good Samaritan – the city’s second-largest church-run refuge. “We went from 40 people one day to 70 the next. The more people you have, the more food you need, the more utilities are used,” he said.
The increase coincides with the White House threat of closing the border to asylum-seekers who cross between ports of entry when Border Patrol daily encounters exceed 2,500 in a week. It also comes as Mexico continues to pull from cargo trains migrants headed for the border, and authorities in Juarez preventing large groups from gathering at the Rio Grande.
“We believe we will see a marked increase in the coming days here and at other places, so we should be prepared. Our biggest need is food,” Fierro said. “The people who arrive next are not going to the river. They will go to a shelter and stay. They know the only way to come in legally to the United States now is through the application. They will seek the shelters, rest and begin their application through the app.”
He was referring to the online asylum appointment system set up by the Biden administration through the CBP One app.
A few migrants interviewed this week along the Rio Grande, in a Downtown shelter and at Good Samaritan said it is harder to cross into the United States than they expected upon arrival in Juarez. Some are afraid of quickly being deported if they just show up at the border wall. Others fear dying in triple-digit temperatures should they decide to hire a smuggler.
“The intent of the migrant is to get across illegally, to be honest. But we have a situation, we have seen many things: People dying in the desert. You become afraid. You seek the (CBP One) appointment,” said Fidelina Bardal, a mother of two from Honduras.
More than 80 migrants have died from heat-related causes, falls and drownings since Oct. 1 in Far West Texas and Southern New Mexico. The body of a Mexican migrant reportedly abandoned by smugglers in the desert south of Santa Teresa, New Mexico, was just recovered by Juarez authorities this week.
The administration last year set up an online appointment system to discourage asylum-seekers from coming unexpectedly taking border agents from their patrol duties and overcrowding U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing centers. That overcrowding sometimes has led federal officials to release migrants on the streets of border cities in Texas, Arizona and California.
CBP One has had its ups and downs but has become the only option for Bardal and Monica E., from Guerrero, Mexico.
“Since the changes made by the president (Biden), we know they are deporting Venezuelans, Colombians, Hondurans, Guatemalans and even Mexicans. […] I decided to wait for my CBP One (appointment),” said Monica. She fled her home in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, after her family was unable to comply with a drug cartel “tax” of 3,000 pesos ($167) per week.
Bardal said she fled Colon, Honduras, after gang members murdered her son for being gay and targeted her teenage daughter for kidnapping.
In Downtown Juarez, Reynaldo Aguirre showed off his Mexican immigration permit while talking about how CBP One has become the only option for asylum.
“I’m doing this legally to see if I can cross legally. The problem is it is a very slow process,” he said. He is hoping to get asylum in the U.S. based on being targeted by pro-government activists for his political views.
The Rev. Francisco Bueno, director of Casa del Migrante, the city’s largest church-run shelter, said it’s true more migrants are seeking shelter, but it’s not a major surge.
“The people arriving now are much less compared to what we have seen in previous occasions. It is a much more controlled situation,” Bueno told Border Report. “They are waiting to see in which direction these changes (by the government) will go next.”
A Juarez official familiar with the migrant situation on Thursday told Border Report the best way to describe what is going on in the city since Biden threatened to close the border to asylum-seekers is a “state of flux.”
It is more of a wait-and-see attitude than a blanket statement that migrants are turning to CBP One or going to smugglers, the official said.