Borderland Journeys: Tensions rise as migrants gather on border

My visits to the Juárez side of the border on Oct. 28 and Nov. 3 are different stories but for different reasons.

Oct. 28 started early with a load of clothing and diapers to transport to the Respettrans migrant shelter near the international bridge in Juárez, a ritual that is part of every border trip I make. This was of special importance because I had heard that the shelter had been overwhelmed with a new wave of migrants from Venezuela.

All was well at the shelter, however. There are 280 people there, mostly women with children. Since Grecia Herrera, the director, has a day job, the migrants basically run the shelter. For example, a young man named Gustavo from Michoacán, Mexico, told me that he was in charge of keeping the shelter clean.

I then drove west along the river on the Juárez side with three destinations in mind: a school for Tarahumara Indians where I would leave oranges and school supplies, a mental facility called Punto Zero where I would unload beans and rice, and Vision in Action, another mental facility where volunteers from El Paso would be having a hot dog day for the patients.

It was a tight schedule that would end with the long drive back to Santa Fe.

The reality, however, is that nothing goes as planned on these trips.

A few minutes after leaving Respettrans, I looked to my right towards the Chihuahuita area where we had seen hundreds of migrants being processed for asylum claims on Sept. 13. Now there was another huge crowd but it was on the Mexican side, not the U.S.

I pulled off the highway, drove up over the curb and onto a flat bare area that faced the Rio Grande and the U.S. Below this little hill was an array of tents, maybe 100 in all.

My car was immediately surrounded by dozens of Venezuelan migrants who were hoping that I had food, clothing, more tents – anything to support their stay.

They were here on the Mexican side of the border because of the Biden administration’s early October decision to invoke Title 42 against Venezuela. This is a public health policy first used by Donald Trump to allow U.S. officials to expel migrants at the border, even if they were exercising their legal right to apply for asylum.

Although this new Title 42 order contains an exemption for up to 24,000 Venezuelans, that’s a drop in the bucket and doesn’t help those I met with.

These hundreds waiting in this tent city by the river knew that if they crossed into the U.S. to apply for asylum, they would be detained and then deported but from a different city – perhaps across from Tijuana, Mexico, instead of El Paso. So they have camped out in these squalid conditions, waiting to see if the policy might be reversed.

Part of the Title 42 process has included an agreement with Mexico that these Venezuelans can stay there, but it is a miserable existence. Some have found jobs in Juárez. The women have had better luck than the men, but the pay is very low.

I was overwhelmed and didn’t know how to respond to these Venezuelans who had gathered around me. They were polite and courteous, but there was also a sense of betrayal.

Venezuela is almost 3,000 miles away, a much more dangerous trip than coming from Central America, for example. Roughly 25% of the country has fled due to the economic and social conditions.

There were huge numbers applying for asylum on Sept. 13, but the Border Patrol was doing an exceptional job of processing them. Due to the high numbers, some ended up sleeping on the streets of El Paso temporarily but that couldn’t have been worse than this Juárez tent city.

Then there was a protest on Oct. 31 with a group of Venezuelans crossing the river and confronting the Border Patrol. As a result, I visited the site again on the morning of Nov. 3 and much had changed, mostly for the worst.

There were now an estimated 1,500 Venezuelans there – three times more than on Oct. 28. A small group of Mexican soldiers was patrolling, and everyone was calm and extremely courteous. But they do not have cooking facilities, and I saw no bathrooms. Fortunately, a group called Hogar de Ninos Rios de Misericordia was serving meals to an enormous number of hungry men, women and children but I saw no evidence of local churches or city officials.

These migrants feel that it’s impossible to return to Venezuela. Their hope is that Title 42 will be lifted after the election. If not, what happens?

Perhaps invoking Title 42 was just a political move – a way to reduce this inflow of migrants and show that the Biden administration has the border under control.

Perhaps after the elections, we can come together and find better ways to balance the need to control our borders with a stronger sense of humanity. In the meantime, I check the temperatures in Juárez every morning. Winter is coming, and it will bring even more misery to this tent city.

Morgan Smith visits the border monthly and writes about border issues. He can be reached at morgan-smith@comcast.net.