Migrants Wait, Hope in Mexican Border Towns

 

Migrants seeking to enter the United States continue to arrive in Tijuana and other Mexican cities along the U.S. border.

Some migrants are traveling in large groups with thousands of people. Others come in groups of just 10 or 12 people.

Many walk for days through Central America, then ride buses or trucks for the long trip through the Mexican countryside.

In border cities like Tijuana, they find help in shelters operated by aid groups.

Angela Escalante is an asylum¹ seeker waiting in Tijuana. She is there with her husband and 7-year-old son.

“The situation is very bad, there are no jobs,” she said of her country of Nicaragua, blaming its political violence on the country’s president, Daniel Ortega. “There’s no security so you can’t safely walk the streets,” she added.

Post-traumatic stress

New arrivals along the border say they also face violence from organized crime and local drug gangs.

Jorge Alejandro Valencia is a 19 year old from western Mexico. He told VOA that, around 14 years ago, criminals killed the brother and a son of his grandfather. Now, criminals are threatening his sister, Valencia said. He fears he and other family members are in danger.

Many migrants have experienced violence from organized crime groups, notes Gordon Finkbeiner. He works for the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Finkbeiner says the group has witnessed and treated people with mental health problems linked to trauma². Many show high levels of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder³.

A 23-year-old Honduran, newly arrived in a shelter, said a gang demanded that he sell drugs. The young man said he could see no escape except to leave his country. He asked not to be identified, saying that the gangs watch Facebook and if his name is made public, they would target his family.

US citizens wait, too

Other people are also waiting in Tijuana’s shelters. They include Africans and Haitians who moved from their home countries to Venezuela, and migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

A woman from Honduras, for example, has a 12-year-old son named Jimmy. He was born in the United States and has U.S. citizenship⁴. Jimmy was sent to Honduras with his mother when the government ordered her to return to Honduras.

A middle-aged⁵ man named Efren Galindo was born in Mexico but grew up in Texas. Two years ago, he was sent back to Mexico and nearly killed by drug dealers⁶, he said as he showed injuries to his back and shoulder.

Galindo has four sons and several grandchildren – all of them U.S. citizens.

Credible⁷ fear, big backlog⁸

To receive asylum in the U.S., asylum seekers must show a clear possibility of harm or torture. They must show they are not simply fleeing poverty. People who have been deported¹⁰ from the United States face added restrictions¹¹. Many cannot return for five, 10, 20 or more years.

At the same time, the U.S. immigration system has a serious backlog of cases. The number of cases rose during the recent 35-day partial closing of the U.S. government. U.S. immigration officials said in a statement January 21 that the government faced “a crisis-level backlog of 311,000” asylum requests.

The backlog of all immigration court cases was more than 800,000 in November 2018, noted¹² researchers at Syracuse University in New York State.

In addition, many detention¹³ centers that house illegal immigrants are temporary, notes Tekae Michael, a border agent who works south of San Diego, California. She said there are not enough immigration judges to process people correctly and quickly.

Mexico is permitting Central Americans to legally stay in the country temporarily. And volunteers from U.S. groups like San Diego’s Border Angels bring supplies to the shelters. Mexican businesses are making donations.

Carlos Yee of the Catholic shelter Casa del Migrante says aid workers like him are angry because they lack the power to speed up the process.

“We only can say to them, ‘Be patient,’” he said.

The city of San Diego can be seen through a border barrier, just 30 kilometers north of Tijuana.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

And I’m Alice Bryant.

Words in This Story

migrant – n. a person who goes from one place to another, especially to find work or better living conditions

gang – n. a group of young people who do illegal things together and who often fight against other gangs

trauma – n. a person who goes from one place to another especially to find work

anxiety – n. fear or nervousness about what might happen

deport⁹ – v. to force a person who is not a citizen to leave a country

backlog – n. a large number of jobs that are waiting to be finished

1 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

2 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

3 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

4 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

5 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

6 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

7 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

8 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

9 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

10 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

12 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

13 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。