“Our fear is that once established they could deport us”: migrants facing Trump ads

Migrants on the northern border of Mexico who have an asylum appointment with the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) fear that the next president, Donald Trump, will deport them despite migrating legally, so their effort would be in vain.

In Ciudad Juárez, one of the epicenters of the migration phenomenon in North America, concern is growing over Trump’s measures, who confirmed that he plans to “declare a national emergency and use military assets” to carry out mass deportations.

Scarlett Rodríguez, a 22-year-old Venezuelan, told EFE that, like her, there are many compatriots who fearfully go to their ‘CPB One’ appointments, an application that the current Joe Biden Government established to manage asylum appointments in Mexico from Mexico. USA.

“The main fear, for me, would be that (Trump) would return to us, because we go with goals, with dreams, hopes of moving forward, we are good people, workers, and just as there are bad people there are good people, but we are more good than bad,” he stated.

Many Latinos in the United States express to the American media their skepticism that Trump will follow through with his threats of mass deportations, but in the shelters on the Mexican border, conversations revolve around the possibility that the former president, upon resuming the power, yes execute them.

Scarlett fled the violence in her country with her daughter, so she confessed that she is excited to have the date, but she also sees compatriots who may not have the same opportunity.

“Those people who do not have an approved appointment at this time feel desperate, we put ourselves in the place of other people because it is not only for us, other people also bring families, bring their children, come with their elderly parents. old, it’s a clash of emotions,” he declared.

Faced with Trump’s warnings, the Government of the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, has defended that its “humanitarian” strategy, inherited by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), has decreased by 76% since last December the flow newspaper on the border with the United States.

Like the Government, migrants like César Bravo, a Venezuelan who also has his ‘CBP One’ appointment, are waiting for the decisions made by the US president. “We don’t know how he will act when he takes over the presidency, or what drastic measures he will take, if he will focus more on putting a stricter law in place and making it difficult to cross, especially for migrants who come from us, as in my case from Venezuela. , going through difficult situations, such as 10 years of a dictatorship,” he told EFE.

For them, a Trump presidency means the tightening of asylum policies and the resumption of drastic measures such as deportations, even for those who arrived legally, or restrictions for those fleeing situations of violence and extreme poverty.

“That is the main fear, that once we are established, they can deport us, that is our fear. That he arrives and puts restrictions, blockades, that they tell us ‘now you can’t enter because you need a visa x’ or anything that prevents us from entering, that is our fear,” Bravo lamented.

José Uriasa businessman and immigrant of Salvadoran origin, called on President Joe Biden in a press conference with activists and beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in Lafayette Park, a few meters from the White House: “You can make a difference.”

The businessman, who employs more than 50 people in Malden (Massachusetts), He has been protected by TPS for almost 24 years; However, his protection expires on March 9. “Please protect my family, my employees, don’t let this American dream collapse.”“Urias asked the president, who ends his term next January.

The call to the Democrat seeks the extension of the immigration protection that protects more than 860,000 foreigners, the majority Venezuelans (344,335), Haitians (200,005) and Salvadorans (180,375), for another year and a half.

The United States Government has the power to grant TPS to immigrants from countries that suffer an armed conflict, a natural disaster or some extraordinary circumstance that does not allow them to return to their homes. Currently, there are immigrants from 16 countries benefiting from this benefit. In his previous administration (2017-2021), Trump already attacked migrants benefiting from TPS when he wanted to eliminate protection for six countries: El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Honduras, Sudan and Nepal.

“We are sure that Trump is going to try again to end that protection,” Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborers Network (NDLON), an organization that promoted the creation of the TPS Alliance to defend the benefit, warned EFE.

The alliance supported a lawsuit led by several US citizens, children of TPS beneficiaries, which managed to sustain the benefit for those countries. “The situation now is different because Trump and his allies have already learned from the mistakes they made and surely this time they will achieve their objective,” Alvarado anticipated.

Biden has it in his hands to extend the relief for at least 18 months, which the law allows him to extend the work permit for these people and protect them from deportation, which Trump will undertake with the help of the Armed Forces and invoking a well-known figure. as a national emergency. However, Alvarado doubts that the Democrat wants to use “the little political capital he has left.”

“Biden only needs courage and political courage to do it, everything is within the reach of his pen,” Alvarado stressed.

The participants in this Monday’s call highlighted the economic contribution made by those covered by TPS and the roots they have in the United States, most of them with American citizen children.

Civil groups and Democratic congressmen have also urged the Democratic administration to designate a TPS for citizens of Guatemala, Ecuador and Colombia due to the violence that has pushed them to leave their countries.

In addition, they have asked President Biden to expand the designation to include undocumented immigrants from the 16 countries, who arrived after the deadline established by the government.