Away in less than a Manger
«Jill and I wish you a Merry Christmas. We hope you and your loved ones are surrounded by love, happiness…» wished the U.S. president. For hundreds of asylum-seekers at the border it is the opposite.
“The expropriation […] from the soil, is the basis of the whole process...”
— Capital, Part VIII
MATAMOROS, MX — «Jill and I wish you a very Merry Christmas. We hope you and your loved ones are surrounded by love, happiness, and cheer this holiday season…» wrote U.S. president Joe Brandon this Sunday, December 25th. Unfortunately, the well-wishes do not extend to the hundreds of asylum-seekers camping in the cold at Mexico's northern border, hoping for a reversal in U.S. migration restrictions.
«I'm staying here, where else can I go?» said Walmix Juin1, a 32-year-old Haitian expat. «We are freezing to death, I can't stand it anymore because of the children,» said Omeira, originally from Venezuela, as she raised her tent from the migrant camp set up on the banks of the Bravo River bordering Brownsville, Texas.
La Jornada reports Gladys Cañas, of the collective Ayudándolos a Triunfar, affirmed that a thousand migrants have left the camp and are in the shelter installed in the Mundo Nuevo auditorium, located on Avenida Pedro Cárdenas Sur, in H. Matamoros.
«I want them all to go (to the shelter) but we have not been able to convince them; yesterday I managed to persuade seven of them not to jump into the river. They are desperate. The issue is that their lives are in danger. We don't know how many more losses there will be...».
Dayana de la O Rivadeneira, a trans person, swam across the Rio Bravo last Thursday, La Jornada reports2. She was only in Brownsville, Texas for a few hours and was immediately deported.
233,740 asylum-seekers were apprehended alone in the month of November by the US Customs and Border department. This is the largest number ever detained at the southern border. Simultaneously, requests for asylum have been rejected 2.5 million times since March 2020, as permissible under Title 423.
Title 42
This Thursday, Joe Brandon urged the Supreme Court to maintain the laws imposed by Donald Trump on asylum seekers during the pandemic, contradicting his previous criticism of the conservative regime.
The Trump administration used an interpretation of Title 42 to issue a public health order during the COVID-19 outbreak. Trump took advantage of the legislative measure, boasting to his base how his approach to immigration policies were designed to keep out as many foreigners as possible. Additionally, he significantly decreased the number of refugees that were permitted to enter the nation-state, tightened the requirements for the asylum procedure, and cut back on legal [sic] immigration channels.
People from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and most recently Venezuela, in addition to Mexico, have been disproportionately affected by the interim law. Mexican president Andres Manuel López Obrador pledged to spend $1.5 billion over the following two years to upgrade "smart" border technology4. The White House praised AMLO’s commitment5, describing it as neighbourly cooperation.
Militarization
With the support of the Mexican National Guard and the State police, more than 500 Venezuelans who were forced to migrate north were evicted from the Rio Bravo riverbank this fall.
Of the 500 migrants evicted, 100 of them agreed to stay in a shelter and around 200 crossed the Rio Bravo to turn themselves in to the Border Patrol, which disqualifies them from requesting political asylum. Reports by La Jornada indicated some of the people in transit were found to have symptoms of hypothermia as well as respiratory ailments.
The majority of the asylum-seekers turned down bureaucrats’ offers, citing their mistrust of government agencies and shelters. "They're going to send us back to the south!" exclaimed the crowd. AvispaMidia reports soldiers belonging to the Texas National Guard have been once deployed to restrict the pass to those seeking asylum6.
Darien
Facing the State authorities over the weekend, the border law-enforcing agents of Land of the Free, which claims to seek to «respect the rights and freedoms of Venezuelans», were notified by the exhausted asylum-seekers: "we survived the Darién, we can survive this! There are journalists here covering this, so do whatever you may!”
On their way north, many South Americans are forced to flee crossing the Darién Gap, a perilous jungle region through Colombia and Panama. It is deemed one of the most hazardous migration routes in the world.
The Darien Gap, accounting for more than sixty miles of lush rain forest, soaring mountains, and extensive marshes, make up the wild, roadless border path between Colombia and Panama7. It is the only route that crosses Central and South America via land. As the current regimes tightened down access to other air and sea routes, it has grown to be a major transit hub for people surviving conditions of immiseration, looking for work and safety in the United States8.
Regarding this new wave of people seeking asylum, “what has been the reaction of the U.S. political class and Venezuelans already established there?”, asked Miguel Tinker Salas and Luis Duno-Gottberg rhetorically.
«None have been able to respond with sympathy.
Despite being severe critics of Nicolás Maduro, politicians such as Marco Rubio, senator from Florida, have not promoted any initiative to assist Venezuelan migrants. During the Trump administration, they refused to support temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelans…»
Story developing.
«In the ancient States, in Greece and Rome, compulsory emigration, assuming the shape of the periodical establishment of colonies, formed a regular link in the structure of society.
The whole system of those States was founded on certain limits to the numbers of the population, which could not be surpassed without endangering the condition of antique civilization itself. But why was it so? To remain civilized they were forced to remain few. Otherwise they would have had to submit to the bodily drudgery which transformed the free citizen into a slave. The want of productive power made citizenship dependent on a certain proportion in numbers not to be disturbed. Forced emigration was the only remedy.
But with modern compulsory emigration the case stands quite opposite. Here it is not the want of productive power which creates a surplus population; it is the increase of productive power which demands a diminution of population, and drives away the surplus by famine or emigration…»
– "Forced Emigration", Karl Marx in the New York Tribune (1853)
Daniel Becerril and Daina Beth Solomon, Migrants face freezing Christmas at U.S.-Mexico border, for Reuters.
Julia Le Duc and Rubén Villalpando, Habilitan albergue para migrantes en Matamoros ante el frío extremo for La Jornada.
Colleen Long, Title 42 border rules confound Washington, migrants alike. December 23, 2022, APNews.
taller ahuehuete, Capital and the Coyote, 2022.
Will Weissert and Zeke Miller, Mexico agrees to invest $1.5B in ‘smart’ border technology. July 12, 2022.
Ñaní Pinto, Migrantes que exigen visas humanitarias son reprimidos por Guardia Nacional. July 2022, for AvispaMidia.
Diana Roy and Sabine Baumgartner, June 22, 2022. Crossing the Darien Gap: Migrants Risk Death on the Journey to the U.S. Tens of thousands of migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, and elsewhere risk their lives each month to cross the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama. Images from along the journey show the dangers they face. John Moore/Getty Images.
Miguel Tinker Salas, Luis Duno-Gottberg, El éxodo venezolano, 2022. La Jornada Online.