When one's number is called, the person/family/group is transported into San Diego where a hearing officer makes a preliminary decision on the asylum claim. In a very confusing policy, if the claim is initially accepted to eventually go before a final court, some persons are taken immediately into a detention facility in the San Diego area, a few are released with an ankle bracelet into the U.S. to go to the sponsoring family, but now, in a U.S. policy called "Return to Mexico," most are returned to Mexico to await the second interview. Since the applicant has no idea which of the options will happen, they take their belongings with them knowing that if they are returned to Mexico, the space in the shelter in which they have been staying may no longer be available if they are returned to Mexico. In a recent article in Vice News, one judge in the U.S. court told an applicant: "If I return you to Mexico, the issue of where you are going (to stay in Mexico) is not before the court."
In a particularly cruel policy, persons who have received numbers at the Mexicali-Calexio crossing do not have hearings in Calexio, the closest U.S. town, but must travel to Tijuana, two and one-half hours away to be available for the calling of their numbers. Local churches and civic organizations who are lodging the applicants in Mexicali, organize buses and vans to take the applicants to Tijuana to be available for the interviews if the number is called. If one misses the calling of his number, his case will not be heard later.
While in Tijuana, we visited Al Otro Lado, a legal collective with U.S. immigration lawyers, that provides information of what an applicant should expect at the hearing in the U.S. ICE reportedly doesn't like Al Otro Lado as it is believed that aslyees are coached on what to say to make their claim more believable. The Al Otro Lado lawyers say that most asylees have no idea what to expect in the hearing and they are merely explaining what will be happening during the hearing. Al Otro Lado is one of many organizations that is trying to help make the process of applying for asylum in the U.S. more humane.
To visit one of the organizations providing shelter for asylees, the Deported U.S. Veterans living in Tijuana took Veterans for Peace national president Gerry Condon and me to the Igelsia Embajadores de Jesus, a Catholic church located in a narrow valley outside of Tijuana. The unpaved road leading up the valley to the church had large potholes and is impassible by vehicle during the rains. Valley residents are not affluent and live on the hillsides in wooden shacks. One suspects that some of the asylees perhaps have come from more affluent circumstances than the Mexican citizens who have opened their valley and church to the newcomers.
Deported Veteran Hector Lopez, Pastor Banda Gustavo and Veterans for Peace National president Gerry Condon
(Image by Photo by Ann Wright) Details DMCA
Gustavo Banda, the pastor of the church for the past 20 years, said that the church is currently housing 250 people, but has held over 500 at times. Approximately 100 Haitians and 150 Central Americans are living in small tents erected inside the church. Each family has one or two tents depending on the size of the family. Cooking is done by residents -- one kitchen is for spicy Haitian food and another kitchen for Central American cuisine. Taking advantage of the government of Mexico's program of allowing applicants to work while waiting in Mexico, several people have found daily/hourly low paid work. Each morning, they walk out of the valley, up the winding paved road on the last hill that leads up to the four-lane road to Tijuana to get to work. Pastor Banda said that those working proudly contribute what they can to the purchase of food for the kitchens.
However, that is not enough to feed all those living in the church therefore, the church looks for donations to purchase food and water. Our Veterans for Peace national organization made a $1,000 donation that the Deported Veterans chapter uses to buy water and food for those housed at the church. While we were at the church, 800 gallons of drinking water to fill the large plastic water tank was delivered and later our Deported Veterans brought 100 pounds of chicken, and bags of rice, beans and vegetables all paid for by VFP. Donations to help with food and water can be made to VFP with a comment "For Deported Veterans Project for food and water for asylees"
On the Mexican side of the border, churches and buildings of other organizations in Tijuana are filled to capacity with persons waiting for their numbers to be called and be allowed eventually to go to the United States.
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