美国国家公共电台 NPR Mexican Official Tries To Move Asylum-Seekers Stuck In Tent Camps

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Thousands of asylum-seekers are stuck in Mexican border towns up and down the U.S.-Mexico border. And in Matamoros, Mexico, more than 1,500 asylum-seekers are living in squalid conditions in a tent encampment. Mexican officials want them to move. Some migrants say child welfare officials have threatened to take custody¹ of their children, separating them from their families. Texas Public Radio's Reynaldo Leanos Jr. reports from Matamoros.

REYNALDO LEANOS JR, BYLINE²: A Mexican child welfare official holding a clipboard addressed a crowd of asylum-seekers last week. They're in a sprawling³ tent encampment near the international bridge that connects Matamoros to Brownsville, Texas.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).

LEANOS: In this video taken by a migrant, the official tells them the encampment is no place for children and that he has the authority to take custody of their kids if they don't move. The parents object.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Through interpreter) How would you like it if we took a child by force from your home?

LEANOS: The child welfare agency in Matamoros did not respond to repeated requests for an interview with NPR. In written statements to the media, the agency says not a single child was taken. The agency says the social workers who went to the encampment just wanted to offer the families space at a new shelter.

Erin Thorn Vela is with the Texas Civil Rights Project. She hopes Mexican officials do keep families together.

ERIN THORN VELA: I was really surprised that this tactic⁴ would be taken of, like, essentially⁵ a new type of family separation on the Mexican side.

LEANOS: She points out that the Trump⁶ administration got a lot of blowback over its family separation policy aimed at discouraging migrant families from illegally crossing into the U.S.

VELA: I would think that they would see how this is really not a good idea and it's not going to end in a good result to threaten people.

LEANOS: Many migrants have been forced to wait in Mexico, sometimes for months, for their hearings in U.S. immigration court under the Trump administration's Remain in Mexico policy. Migrants say they prefer to live in the encampment where they feel protected by American aid groups and have access to legal help. And they have been largely ignored by the U.S. and Mexican governments. That is, until last Friday, when Mexican officials decided⁷ they wanted to clear the encampments and move the migrants. Some of them are living in tents. Others sleep under bushes or on the streets. Many bathe in the Rio Grande.

Matamoros' Mayor Mario Lopez says he's concerned about public health and the migrants' well-being⁸.

MARIO LOPEZ: (Through interpreter) I want to convey confidence that we're treating them well and that we have our doors open to migrants and help them so they can get to their destination, which is the United States.

LEANOS: Lopez says the government would not forcibly move asylum-seekers to the shelter. Still, panic has been spreading. Migrants say some of the child welfare officials went tent to tent looking for children. One Honduran mother said she refused to let them take her son.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Through interpreter) I told them I couldn't, that I wouldn't let my kid go. And they told me I didn't know the laws here in Mexico.

LEANOS: She says an official handed her a notice to appear at a child welfare office, but she had no intentions of going. She asked that we not use her name because she fears retribution. Like most migrants camped out at the bridge, she says she has no plans of going to the shelter, a converted gymnasium that can house 300.

I was able to go inside the shelter, which is only about a third full. I spoke⁹ to another Honduran mother who says she was happy to come here with her son.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Speaking Spanish).

LEANOS: She says they get three meals a day. There are restrooms, and they sleep in a bed.

Back at the encampment, advocates, including Amnesty International, say they're monitoring the situation to make sure the human rights of migrants are respected.

For NPR News, I'm Reynaldo Leanos Jr. in Matamoros, Mexico.

1 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

4 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。