BajaNomad
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Aid organizations at the border adapt to the pandemic
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Patrick Murphy knew things were never going to be the same again when he closed the doors to his migrant shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, for the first
time in the shelter’s 32-year history.
Casa del Migrante had taken in more than 260,000 migrants over the course of those years, everyone from single deportees to entire families seeking
asylum.
But in March, the coronavirus thrust shelters and migrants along the 2,000-mile border into uncharted waters when it began spreading across the U.S.
and Latin America. Fearing an outbreak, Murphy chose to temporarily close the shelter and adapt onsite care for the 27 migrants living in their
facilities that month.
“The big, big risk in Tijuana is that somebody comes, and if they're sick, where do I send them? There is no option,” he said. “The general
hospital won't take them unless they're a certain level of sick, they have to be severely sick, so there is no structure here.”
Like the U.S., Mexico has seen cases of the virus skyrocket since March. Tijuana, a border city just south of California, has the second highest
numbers outside of the capital, Mexico City, with nearly 4,000 active cases and more than 800 deaths.
While shelters like the Casa fear that their facilities could become potential sites of outbreak of the virus, migrants feel the ripple effect as many
survive with just a fraction of the aid that acts as their lifeline on the border. Many of them are asylum seekers sitting in limbo under the Trump
administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their cases to be heard.
To address the humanitarian impact of the crisis, Murphy’s shelter, along with others across the region are adjusting their services.
For the Casa, that has meant collaboration. In order to accept new migrants, they are working with other aid organizations to build a phased system in
which asylum seekers and deportees quarantine for 14 days in a hotel on the border before entering the refuge. Murphy said they’re also sharing food
donations with other shelters and keeping in regular contact with the network of aid organizations to determine the best way to navigate the situation
together.
The Casa has also amped up sanitary precautions and drastically reduced shelter capacities to comply with social distancing, something Murphy said
will likely continue until the shelter feels sure that there won’t be an outbreak.
When they temporarily closed the doors to their shelter, Murphy said they began to deliver meals to the people they couldn’t accept. With new
coronavirus-related migration policies by the Trump administration further clamping down on migration and without resources, some migrants, many from
Central America and Mexico, have chosen to leave the border. Those who have stayed, largely migrants from countries like Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti,
do not have the option to return to their country.
“I call them baby steps of embracing the new norm because things will never be like they were before,” he said. “We have to learn as we go,
there's no doubt. We take all the precautions we can, but no system will be foolproof.”
The measures they take could mean life or death for asylum seekers like José, whose last name is being withheld for his safety.
The 38-year-old Venezuelan fled his country with his wife and 5 and 11-year-old sons after he was politically persecuted. The family arrived at the
border 10 months ago to seek asylum in the U.S. and have lived in Nogales, Sonora, to comply with “Remain in Mexico” requirements. They are among
5 million others who have fled the country in recent years. Over 650,000 have come seeking asylum from violence and political persecution worldwide.
Many more have been victims of targeted violence.
But the family has lived in fear since José was kidnapped and assaulted by a gang trying to force him into paying thousands of dollars to smuggle his
family across the border into Arizona. He worries even walking outside. When the coronavirus hit, that concern only multiplied as the small pieces of
stability they managed to achieve vanished.
“We are scared of the danger of these armed groups, and we're scared of coronavirus,” José said. “Here, we live in terror.”
In Mexico, they have relied heavily on aid organizations, living in refugee shelters, eating at the Nogales-based migrant kitchen, Kino Border
Initiative, and using the initiative’s legal services to navigate the ever-changing labyrinth of the U.S. asylum system under the Trump
administration.
The processing of asylum cases like José’s have all but ground to a halt, and the Trump administration announced that they were going to
“indefinitely” extend heightened restrictions on migrants, including asylum seekers. Despite being protected under international law, it was
already almost impossible to be granted asylum in the U.S.
With the lockdowns, José lost the job he relied on to pay for the small apartment they live in. The family is on 24-hour quarantine because José’s
sons are asthmatic. The only reason they have food to eat, he said, is because Kino’s migrant kitchen has continued operating. The local church paid
the family’s rent for the month.
“These organizations have given us a lot of help, and we haven’t felt so alone,” he said. “It’s lifted us up not just economically, but
morally.”
Like Murphy’s Tijuana-based shelter, Kino has catered to migrants on the border for years. Its soup kitchen was once packed with asylum seekers and
the organization offered medical and legal consults.
They’ve raced to adapt as U.S. migration law has tightened under the Trump administration in recent years, said Katie Sharar, a leader at Kino. Now,
as the coronavirus hits, they are doing the same.
They deliver a week’s worth of food to families in quarantine, while a fraction of the volunteers they once worked with sit 15 feet apart chopping
vegetables in their kitchen. They continue to provide legal services remotely over phone and video calls.
They’ve taken extreme measures to curb the risk of infection among both their staff and the people they serve. Any outbreak could mean disaster for
the increasingly vulnerable populations they serve.
“They're kind of one in the same really: to protect migrants is to protect ourselves, and to protect ourselves is to protect migrants,” Sharar
said.
In Tijuana, Murphy’s shelter faces similar fears. Their refuge once housed as many as 160 people. Now as they cautiously open their doors, they
don’t plan to host more than 75 at a time.
Like Kino and other organizations Sojourners spoke to, they face mounting costs of providing aid, everything from heightened sanitary precautions to
hiring a staff doctor. Murphy worries about how they will prepare the migrants in their care for an uncertain future, but says the key is facing
what’s ahead little by little.
“We're not optional. We can't close our doors forever,” Murphy said. “We've had these two months to deal with it. Now we have to think about
what we're doing, try and help a few people with time, then a few more, then a few more, then a few more.”
--
https://sojo.net/articles/were-not-optional-aid-organization...
https://www.10news.com/news/coronavirus/glimpse-at-life-insi...
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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BajaBlanca
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Posts: 13165
Registered: 10-28-2008
Location: La Bocana, BCS
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From one hell to another if you are leaving Venezuela, Haiti and living in Nogales. How very sad.
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surfhat
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Registered: 6-4-2012
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Doug, what a bit of fresh air without the red vs blue contamination that seems to proliferate here from some folks.
Just the facts, ma'am [Dragnets Sgt. Joe Friday for those too young to remember] is much appreciated.
Peace, love, and fish tacos. Stay as safe as you can. Show you care about others and wear a face mask when out in the public.
It is not about you. It shows you care about others.
Trying to imagine the position so many desperate refugees are in while waiting on our current governments corrupted process to be processed for
consideration is heartbreaking.
Demanding all refugees seeking entrance to remain south of the border while providing zero funding to Mexico to care for them, is criminal, or it damn
well should be.
History will have the final say after so many have lost their lives seeking nothing more than being able to live and raise their kids.
So much for our nation being a guiding light to the world. The respect our nation once held is toast, and it deeply hurts to the core that we as a
people have allowed this to happen.
I am sure some will rant ever on, but I don't come here daily to read any of their posts. I choose to ignore political leanings by lemmings.
I rarely engage the usual direction most of the postings follow lately.
Off topic needs to be used so much more to clear the way for the latest updates on the topics that actually provide usable info on the current
conditions for all those who love Baja and care about what our friends are having to deal with south of the border.
"Can't we all just get along" out of the mouths of babes some wisdom abounds.
Have at it.
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JZ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9226
Registered: 10-3-2003
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It's a nightmare scenario for them.
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