Friday, June 28, 2019

Behind Walls of Separation


El Chaparral has changed again since MPT was last here. No longer are the government agencies attempting to maintain a facade of an autonomous asylum seekers self-managed list. Now, the red canopy and the list managers sit inside the National Institution of Migration / Border Police parking area, behind huge metal posts set side by side - a fence that mirrors the Border wall itself, hiding and blocking the recording of illegal numbers and the entire process. 

The assertion that the list managers as asylum seekers are in authority and control the list wears thin when they are seen sitting behind a fence that isolates one asylum seeker from another creating a cold and impersonal shield of separation. People's lives are neatly arranged in illusionary ink, reduced to slips of paper and handed through the inhumane barrier. The stories of the migrants have been muted - the human voice can barely pass through this metal barrier. 



The entire sidewalk is roped off. Asylum seekers must stand a great distance away, held back by yet another metal barrier where a list manager tells them when to advance down the sidewalk to release their precious documents through the metal barrier. They wait, poised to see if the papers will prove their right to ask for asylum or to see if  they will be told that they don't have the proper documents. How can an asylum seeker believe that there is anything other than an orchestrated dance of cruelty and corruption behind this metal veil that denigrates U.S. and international law and the right to seek asylum? 

Upon return this summer, tensions are rising. MPT has observed the escalation of indignation by those holding the tiny illegal numbers for weeks and sometimes months. They angrily challenge the system demanding answers to why their number has not been called - questioning why they have been bypassed while others are allowed entry. A team member observed an asylum seeker look a Grupos Beta humanitarian agent in the eye saying, "I know what's going on - I heard with my own ears someone with a number lower than me say, 'Cuanto me cobra?' ('How much will it cost me?').

A team member listened to this exchange, witnessing the agent respond stoically to the accusations that were bravely asserted by this man and two women. They stood directly in the driveway entrance on the Mexican side of the border - yards away from where "the chosen" line up to board the vans that drive them less than half a kilometer away to Ped East Point of Entry. There they disembark only to be shuffled in a line - grandmothers, babies, and pregnant women. Then they are turned over to the custody of ICE on the U.S. side and loaded and transported by U.S. vans a mere 200 feet from where they were boarded at El Chaparral in the first place. 



Meanwhile, out in the center divide stand the Africans of Cameroon, Togo and Yemen, along with the Haitians and Jamaicans, visibly segregated from the lighter-skinned asylum seekers. They all stand waiting to be called. Team members observed seven numbers called today which should mean 70 people cross, but instead only 14 are transported to Al Otro Lado (the other side). The questions hang in the air.  Why? And again Who goes? Who stays and who is making a profit? We observe, we listen and meticulously document to find the answers.

There are other things to consider as well like: Who gets to have an audience? Who is turned away? Which documents are accepted and why aren’t others? Our team members witness the dire reality of this manufactured crisis that squeezes out the last remnants of civility. It is a world gone mad with waiting and fearful desperation mired in exhaustion. Team members know that there will be more trauma for these families, the seekers of asylum, before relief is found if at all. 

Today the Summer Meta Peace Team saw there was a UN representative taking photos of the people waiting in an illegal line for illegal numbers - their lives illegally held in limbo by a number on a piece of paper.  Meta Peace Team holds a peaceful and loving presence in the wake of chaos.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

A System Designed to Make Life Hard

Since arriving at the border this summer, MPT has heard disturbing information and seen questionable actions that indicate that the process of asylum-seeking operates neither fairly nor squarely. The process has become more complicated, secretive and corrupt.

Most readers of this blog already know about the illegal “metering” system. Instead of being welcomed into the US as international law states, an asylum seeker is given a number on a tiny piece of paper. Because that number will not be called for weeks or months, people have to find a place to stay until that number is reached.  There is no way to tell exactly when the number will be called.  Anywhere from 0 to 100 names may be called on any day, so asylum seekers must pack up their families and all of their possessions and get themselves to the border at 7 AM (sometimes requiring several hours of travel). They do this for several days in a row in order to be there when their number is called.  If they miss the call, they must start over again by getting a new number and the wait continues.

Today 60 new arrivals received their numbers while only 30 names of asylum seekers were called, and of those 30 names, a total of 15 people actually passed through to the US where their first stop will be detention centers for several weeks.  One team member expressed to an English-speaking asylum seeker who was standing next to her that she was concerned that so many people were missing their call. The woman explained that many of those who were not there at this time had paid to get lower numbers and had passed through at an earlier date.  

The difference between the numbers that were distributed today and the numbers of the asylum seekers who were able to enter the U.S. represents 3240 individuals. That shows how many people are left waiting “in limbo,” stuck at the border, trying to find life’s basic needs: food, clothing, shelter. This life is hard. We hear that. We see that. We sense that. This life is hard. And the system seems designed to make it that way.


Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Border Report - Context and Orientation



Monday was MPT's first full day in Tijuana. The team spent the day connecting with partners to discuss the work ahead, meeting with friends from the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans, and visiting Las Playas de Tijuana where the border wall reaches out into the ocean like a long finger pointing toward freedom and a world without walls.

Throughout the week, the team will be posting short reports on what we are witnessing and doing at the border. Upon return, team members will offer more detailed accounts of the situation on the ground.These daily posts are offered as brief snapshots of what is happening here.

The day began with the news that  Mexico was sending 15, 000 troops to the northern U.S.- Mexico border in response to pressure from the Trump administration. This was followed by reports that a migrant father and his 23-month-old daughter drowned a migrant father and his 23-month-old daughter drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande. These realities, along with the ongoing rash of stories detailing the horrid conditions in U.S. immigration detention facilities and the ongoing manufactured humanitarian crisis at the border, provide some of the context for the work of MPT's June Border Team.


After orienting ourselves and being brought up to date on the situation at the border and beyond for those seeking asylum, the team visited the office of the Unified Deported U.S. Veterans and Veterans for Peace Tijuana. These veterans, who are dealing with the trauma of war, detention, and deportation, have been waging a mighty struggle to return home to their families and friends in the U.S. As Hector, one of the deported vets, says: "If I died tonight, my ashes could be returned to the States where I would be given a full military funeral, yet while I'm alive I can't return to the only home I know . . .  I'm an American."

Although the injustice of being deported after having served in the military has been devastating for each veteran, collectively they have built a strong and loving community here in Tijuana where, in addition to their advocacy work, they offer support to newly-deported vets and direct aid to migrants living in Tijuana's shelters.



When MPT was here in February, the team was invited by the veterans to place a peace team at a march they were co-sponsoring with a local Muslim group.

This team plans on accompanying the vets later in the week as they offer humanitarian relief to migrants. Individual team members are also arranging meetings with their elected officials back home in order to raise the issue of justice for these deported vets and offer an eye witness report of what is happening on the U.S. - Mexico border..

After leaving the vets' office, the team went to Las Playas de Tijuana where the wall that separates Tijuana from San Diego stretches out into the ocean. This is where Friendship Park is located, the site where the deported vets organize weekly bi-national church services.This is also the site where Pat Nixon famously stated that she wished the barbed wire fence that separates the people of two such friendly nations would be cut down.

This area, which once provided a space for families on both sides of the border to connect with one another, is now highly restricted and monitored by U.S. Border Patrol. Today Friendship Park is open for only a few hours on weekends to ten people at a time, a far cry from the vision of unity articulated by the former First Lady.


Despite draconian policies to keep people separated, the wall has become a place of resistance and hope.This is where deported veterans have painted their names onto the iron slats of the wall and where the ugliness of separation has been transformed into a beautiful statement of shared humanity through art and gardens and creative expressions of solidarity. 

The team's last visit of the day to the  Tijuana's Border Angels office and migrant shelter that hug the beach at Las Playas. MPT learned that earlier in the afternoon, ten Mexican soldiers conducted a raid on the shelter, arresting two men. The team wonders if this raid has anything to do with the day's news about Mexican troops being sent to the U.S. - Mexico border. The team will keep in touch with Border Angels and post updates.

Early tomorrow morning the team will report to  El Chaparral at the U.S. point of entry (POE) to provide human rights monitoring and a peaceful presence.This is where those seeking asylum line up early in the morning in order to be placed on a waiting list as part of a "metering" process that is in violation of international and U.S. law.

Others, having waited weeks or even months after being placed on the list, also gather at El Chaparral in the hope that their numbers will be called that day. Those whose names are announced will then board a bus that will take them on a hellish journey that begins with being held in the hielera (ice box) for processing. From there, these asylum seekers will step into an uncertain future that may include family separation, detention, and being sent back to Mexico.

Resources:

Al Otro Lado Border Rights Project: https://alotrolado.org/programs/border-rights-project/

Refugee Blockade: The Trump Administration's Obstruction of Asylum Claims at the Border (Human Rights First Fact Sheet)
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/December_Border_Report.pdf

Monday, June 24, 2019

MPT at the Border - Summer Team



MPT Summer Border Team is off to a great start having arrived in Tijuana in time for orientation with our partner organization. We see great need for our compassionate presence. Asylum seekers face a very difficult, complicated  - even horrendous - process at all levels, and many of the potential outcomes are devastating. Over and over again arbitrary decisions are made such as: the time pending between presenting themselves and having their claims heard, the documentation process and whether or not family members are going to be separated. Much of what we heard at orientation helped us better understand the process and fueled our desire to work for human dignity and freedom. Our work begins today.