Between makeshift tents with blankets and tree branches, five Cubans await a response to their CBP One appointment at the migrant camp in Matamoros. “I’m not going to risk crossing the Rio Grande and being deported,” says this island national who has the name Idalmis tattooed on his chest.
Idalmis fled Cuba almost four years ago. in interview with the journalist from ImpactoVision John Ritchie says that “the Police had me too shocked”, that he owes “a very large amount of the clothes he sold” and that if they return him, he will go to jail
She left her children and her mother in search of a better future because “the situation in Cuba is very bad, it is as bad as anywhere else,” she stresses, while describing the government’s attitude as “lack of respect.” “If you have money, there is no food or medicine, and when you want something, you don’t have dollars.”
This Cuban and his wife are only separated by the Rio Grande from Brownsville, one of the Texan cities that, along with El Paso and Laredo, have declared a state of emergency before the end of Title 42 on May 11. The measure, activated by then-President Donald Trump under the argument of preventing people with covid-19 from entering the country, but which served in practice to expel migrants without having to accept their asylum applications, will be replaced by other measures. established by the current Administration, which although it increases the ways to legally request the entry permit, promises to toughen the punishments for those who enter irregularly.
Idalmis says that the journey has taken him through 11 countries. “I left for Suriname, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, the Darien jungle, Costa Rica, Honduras, until I arrived in Mexico, where the stretch between Tapachula and Mexico City has been a bigger obstacle than crossing the Darien jungle. “due to the extortions, the kidnappings, the threats that are on the way.
In Nebraska, this Cuban has an established brother, and he says excitedly: “At least we already have the job. The delay for us is being able to legally enter the United States and arrive.”
Next to this couple is a woman who preferred not to say her name. She left the island four months ago via Nicaragua. “The flight cost 2,300 dollars, although others have had 3,000 and up to 6,000 dollars,” she says, “the one that leaves does not return but you do have to buy your round trip ticket.”
These people are pending information on migration. They perceived movements on the Brownsville side last Sunday, just the day that the US government of Joe Biden ordered the deployment of another 1,500 soldiers in support of 2,500 National Guard agents who will be distributed along 3,100 kilometers of the border between the US USA and Mexico.
“None of us is going to cross, because it means risking deportation,” says the Cuban woman who traveled alone “because the money was not enough for her husband’s flight.” Since Monday none of the migrants, mostly Venezuelans, have attempted to cross the Rio Grande.
Gladis Cañas, representative of the Ayudenles a Triunfar association, tells 14 intervene that before the end of Title 42 many people have swum across the Rio Grande, but unfortunately two people died in the attempt. “Aspiring to the American dream should not be synonymous with death,” he also says that the CBP One application “has had many deficiencies, has many errors, and this has caused migrants to make wrong decisions that can truncate their processes.”
The group of Cubans knows that Starting this Thursday May 10, CBP One will have approximately 1,000 appointments available for 23 hours, every day instead of a designated time. According to the Customs and Border Protection Office, this measure “will allow greater flexibility, prioritizing non-citizens who have waited longer.”
On the US side, the mayor of El Paso, Oscar Leeser, warned that his officials are preparing for the arrival of thousands of migrants on Friday. “In the street we calculated (that there were) between 8,000 and 10,000 people,” he said during a visit to the border with Ciudad Juárez. “There’s a caravan that will probably be here around May 11, so I’d say the actual number we’ll be dealing with will be somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000.”
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