Citing the concerns of coronavirus, the Trump administration has been expelling the migrant youth from entering America.
Every year, young migrants and asylum seekers swim across the Rio Grande and try to enter America through the dense bushes of Texas. Some of the teens have either run away from Central America on their own while the rest come with their parents from the refugee camps in Mexico. Some of the kids are as young as 10.
Under the US immigration law, these migrants are allowed to live with their relatives till their cases are resolved in the immigrant courts in the US. Instead of following the regulations, the Trump administration has been doing the opposite and expelling them, citing the causes of coronavirus in the country.
The administration has expelled 600 such young migrants in April alone.
These expulsions are the latest administrative measures taken by the Trump government that prevent the entry of the migrant children. There have been other programs introduced including the zero tolerance policy that has resulted in the separation of thousands of families.
The border agencies have alerted saying that they need to restrict the asylum claims along with the border crossings to contain the spread of the virus. The advocates of the migrants have said that the same is a pretext to dispense the normal federal protection rights that have been put for the children.
In some of the interviews conducted with The Associated Press news agency, two of such expelled migrant teens said that the border agents have clearly mentioned to them that they wouldn’t be allowed to request asylum. Both the teens were placed in the cells and their fingerprint scans were collected following by a medical exam. Four days later, they were flown back to Guatemala, which is their home country.
Brenda, who is 16 years old, left Guatemala to reach US for earning money so she could support her family financially. Her father works in a farm but it is not enough to cover the expenses.
Her family had even borrowed $13,000 to pay a smuggler but was later arrested for crossing the irregulary authorities in April in Texas.
“I did ask to talk to my brother because he wanted to get a lawyer, because he wanted to fight for my case. But they told me they were not letting people talk to anyone. No matter how much I fought, they were not letting anyone stay,” Brenda said.
Another teen, Osvaldo, who is 17 years old said that the agents that caught him didn’t let him call his father. He was placed in a cold room and was given a foil blanket, mask and pair of gloves each day for the four days that he stayed in custody.
Osvaldo was tested for his temperature but not for Covid-19 until he reached Guatemala. He was also not provided with any immigration paperwork and just the medical examination report that was conducted on him.
Reports have even come about a 10-year old boy and his mother spending a month at the squalid camp in Mexico. She kept waiting for their immigration court dates under the Trump administration program, “Remain in Mexico”.
Expecting that her son would be better off staying with a relative in US, she saw her son swim across Rio Grande.
She didn’t hear back from the authorities about her son and his well being until six days later when she received a call from a shelter in Honduras.
The US authorities had thrown her son to a shelter in Honduras, which is where he lives under the care of the shelter. A relative had agreed to take him back to his mother but the single mother is worried about her abusive partner who has beaten them previously.
The expulsions of the migrant youth by the US Customs and Border Protection started in late March with the Covid-19 used as a form of justification for the act.
According to the reports, the US has expelled more than 20,000 irregular borders cross from Mexico since mid-March. With the virus spreading through the detention facilities, US has deported over 100 migrants back to Guatemala including minors.
Michelle Brane, director of migrant rights at the Women’s Refugee Commission reported that the Trump administration has been using the virus as a mere excuse for the expulsion process. The reason being that they can conduct tests and checks to contain the spread of the virus instead of expelling them.
“At the very heart of it, it has always been about trying to block access to protection for children and families and asylum seekers,” Brane said.
