Part of Chicago’s Public Library’s One Book One Chicago series, our last Public Newsroom of the year took a look at the effects of changing immigration policies along the U.S./Mexico border.

By Alex Arriaga

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For the final Public Newsroom of the year, we thought we’d take advantage of the ability to create virtual events and invited a guest hundreds of miles away, from the border between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, to discuss how the Trump administration used COVID-19 as a way to further limit the U.S. asylum system and how advocates hope that will change after Joe Biden is sworn in.

Sara Ritchie, director of education and advocacy with Kino Border Initiative—a bi-national organization serving deportees and advocating for fair immigration between Mexico and the United States—joined us to discuss how her organization has adapted to changing policies and how their tactics might shift in the next four years.

This Public Newsroom was part of Chicago Public Library’s One Book One Chicago series “Beyond Borders,” a series inspired by Mohsin Hamid’s novel, Exit West. The book’s story, of a couple escaping the unsafe conditions of their city and traveling through magical doors as they seek refuge, inspired us to create an interactive activity for Public Newsroom attendees. Together, we explored the interview questions that migrants are asked as they seek asylum or citizenship, and we asked participants to reflect for themselves, what does safety and home look like? What struck me most in this activity were participants’ reflections on the conditions that lead people to seek asylum, and the historical role the United States has had in creating these conditions. 

Over the course of my time reporting with City Bureau on how immigrants build power and participate in democracy, I’ve looked into topics such as the census, mutual aid and protest. During the fall, I worked with Civic Reporting Fellows Lynda Lopez, Paco Alvarez and Lily Qi to center immigrants in our coverage of the November election. These team members also helped guide our activity. I hope that some of our reporting, and the discussion in this forum, can push further conversation about the ways displaced people are locked out of power to shape our world, and likewise empowered through community building.

As we head into a Biden administration, with its roots under Obama’s, Ritchie shared some lessons on the immigration and asylum system for us. 

Here’s what we learned.

Asylum has changed under the Trump Administration 

Prior to Trump’s crackdown on asylees, a migrant seeking asylum could enter the United States to await processing. Under the Trump administration, they instead must wait in Mexico, and the system for getting a court date is inconsistent at best. The process has been dismantled so much that “one could say asylum is dead,” Ritchie said.

The names of asylum seekers are kept in a list at different ports of entry (some simply handwritten in notebooks, Ritchie said), and U.S. officials call each port daily to alert them how many people can be admitted or processed—sometimes that’s zero, according to the American Immigration Council. Some lists are managed by non-governmental organizations, a Mexican entity or municipality or other officials at the port of entry. In Nogales, Mexican officials originally managed the list, but it became corrupted when officials sold spots as people dropped off, Ritchie said. 

The wait for asylum is lengthy and often unsafe

Even after an asylum-seeker gets a court date, they may have to wait four or five months, Ritchie said. Critics argue that this lengthy wait is a violation of asylum seekers’ due process rights. During this time they need to find housing and other services in Mexico, but advocates and researchers say that the recent flood of asylees has had trouble accessing any help in Mexico and often become targets of violent crime, according to a report by the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. 

COVID has been a vehicle for Trump’s anti-immigration agenda

The COVID pandemic has exacerbated these issues, Ritchie said. On March 20, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an order that effectively suspended asylum for people entering at the borders, and has since indefinitely extended the order despite objections from public health authorities. The CDC director has also granted border agents the authority to expel migrants, including asylum seekers, at the borders. Ritchie said these have become known as “express deportations.”

Ritchie said this has meant the lists of names are even longer at the ports that have kept them open, though some ports of entries have stopped taking names entirely. Asylum seekers are forced to travel to the handful of cities where they think they may have a chance at asylum through putting their name on an incredibly long list.

Migrants are building their own movement as they wait

Some migrants who remain in the communities where they are forced to await processing have made connections with one another, and in Nogales, they have organized acts of protest. Kino Border Initiative has supported the protests that occur on both sides of the border to push for the message to save asylum. “It’s been really energizing for migrants, and it’s been uplifting, during a time of such bleakness,” Ritchie said.

Repairing asylum under the Biden administration  

The Biden administration has said they plan to get rid of metering lists and the “Remain in Mexico” policy. Ritchie says there will be an effort to pressure him to stay true to his word. “We’re going to keep organizing, probably even more so, to keep applying that pressure,” she said. 

On December 2, migrants marched through downtown Nogales, Sonora. This event addressed the Biden victory and demanded an end to rapid expulsions, MPP and metering. Here’s where you can find more about the petition and campaign to #SaveAsylum. 

Our second presenter, Antonio Gutierrez of Organized Communities Against Deportations was unable to join us for this Public Newsroom due to unforeseen circumstances. OCAD works in Chicago to resist deportations and the criminalization of immigrants and people of color. We encourage you to learn more about their organization at organizedcommunities.org

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