SEPTEMBER 01, 2016
Herds of African immigrants are being housed in shelters in the
Mexican border town of Tijuana while they await entry into the United States
under what appears to be a secret accord between the Obama administration,
Mexico and the Central American countries the Africans transited on their
journey north. A backlog of African migrants is overwhelming limited shelter
space in Tijuana and Mexican officials blame the slow pace of U.S. immigration
authorities in the San Isidro port of entry for granting only 50 asylum
solicitations daily.
Details
about this disturbing program come from Mexico’s immigration agency, Instituto
Nacional de Migracion (INM), and appear this week in an articlepublished by the country’s largest newspaper.
“Mexico is living through a wave of undocumented Africans, due to a
humanitarian crisis on that continent, that has saturated shelters in
Tapachula, Chiapas, and generated pressure on shelters in Tijuana, Baja
California,” the news article states. The African migrants’ journey begins in
Brazil under a South American policy that allows the “free transit” of
immigrants throughout the continent. Ecuador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama
facilitate the process by transferring the concentration of foreigners towards
Mexico based on an agreement that Mexico will help them gain entry into the
U.S. so they can solicit asylum.
The
Africans are mostly entering Mexico through the southern state of Chiapas,
which borders Guatemala. This week alone 424 Africans arrived at the Chiapas
immigration station, which is situated in Tapachula. Shelters in Tijuana
currently have 154 migrants from African countries waiting on their U.S. asylum
solicitations, according to figures provided by the INM. “The undocumented
don’t want to stay in Mexico,” the news article clarifies. “They want to make
it to U.S. territory to solicit asylum based on the life conditions that
prevail in the continent.” Authorities in Tijuana are offering support to
migrants from El Congo, Somalia, Ghana and Pakistan to facilitate entering the
U.S. through the San Isidro crossing, according to the news story. San Isidro
is the largest land border crossing between San Diego, California and Tijuana.
The Obama administration has done a great job of promoting its
various back-door amnesty programs, which include perpetually extending a humanitarian measure
designed to temporarily shield illegal immigrants from deportation during
emergencies. It’s known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and in the last few
years migrants from several African countries have received it so the new
influx is not all surprising. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone got TPS back in
2014 over the lingering effects of the Ebola Virus and earlier this year
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson extended it. The administration cited the “continued
recovery challenges” the African countries face for the extension.
Last
summer Johnson extended a TPS for Somalians until March 17,
2017, which could have served as a driving force behind the sudden surge via
Latin America. A notice in the Federal Register says the extension was
warranted because the conditions in Somalia that prompted the TPS designation
continue to be met. “There continues to be a substantial, but temporary,
disruption of living conditions in Somalia due to ongoing armed conflict that
would pose a serious threat to the personal safety of returning Somali
nationals, as well as extraordinary and temporary conditions in the country
that prevent Somali nationals from returning to Somalia in safety,” the notice
states. “The Secretary has also determined that permitting eligible Somali
nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not contrary to the
national interest of the United States.”
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