BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The situation of thousands of migrants pouring into the southern border every day has once again raised concerns as yet another incident of migrant children dying in detention facilities at the U.S. border has come to light. According to a number of foreign media reports on the 18th, around the expiration of Article 42 of the US federal government's rapid deportation order for illegal immigrants on the grounds of epidemic prevention and control, the immigration reception facilities in the border area were overcrowded, and a large number of migrants were trapped outside the border wall under harsh conditions; And many of the immigrants admitted were used as partisan props to be transferred from Republican-run border states to Democratic-run cities, but had nowhere to live.
Outside the walls, the open air is bitter, etc
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency reported on the 17th that an 8-year-old illegal immigrant girl died while detained by the U.S. Border Patrol in Harlingen, Texas. According to the Associated Press on the 18th, the girl is from Panama and is not the first Latin American immigrant to die in a US border detention facility recently. A week ago, a 17-year-old from Honduras died in an immigration detention facility in Florida. These incidents have reignited concerns about the situation of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
This is a May 16 photograph of migrants inside a shelter in the U.S.-Mexico border city of Reynosa, Mexico. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xin Yuewei
Over the past few weeks, large numbers of migrants have flocked to the Mexican border to take advantage of the "window" after the expiry of the U.S. fast-track deportation order for illegal immigrants, making it difficult for the U.S. Border Patrol to process so many migrants in a timely manner, and detention facilities are overcrowded. According to Associated Press data, the total number of migrants detained by the Border Patrol on the 10th was 28,717, double that of two weeks ago; On the 14th, the average length of detention of migrants in the Border Patrol Patrol's facilities was 77 hours, exceeding the limit of 5 hours.
In the California border city of San Diego, hundreds of migrants stranded last week on U.S. territory between the U.S.-Mexico border wall, waiting in the open for days, surviving on the small amounts of water and food distributed by the Border Patrol and food delivered by volunteers or vendors through the gaps in the wall.
A migrant weeps at a shelter in the U.S.-Mexico border city of Reynosa, Mexico, on May 16. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xin Yuewei
Pedro Ríos, head of a US-Mexico border immigration service organization, said on the 18th that simple toilets have been overloaded, and stranded migrants are problems going to the toilet. He also called emergency numbers at the request of Border Patrol officers after volunteers found an 8-month-old baby stranded outside the border wall "weak and vomiting."
There is nowhere to go in the city
To free up space in detention facilities, the Border Patrol Department last week began changing immigration processing to allow immigrants to enter and travel elsewhere in the United States, and then report to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and file their asylum claims pending the outcome of their applications in immigration court.
However, this change has led to more immigrants in many cities favored by immigrants, such as New York and Chicago, and the capacity is approaching the limit.
Workers work at the construction site of the Migrant Rescue Center located in Randall Island, New York City, USA, October 9, 2022. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Ying
In Chicago, government officials claiming they can't afford to rent hotels for all immigrants this month converted locker rooms at sports fields in parks into "makeshift lounges" for immigrants, and hundreds of migrants sleeping on police station floors with nowhere to stay.
In New York, government officials have also tried a variety of "unconventional" approaches to accommodate immigrants: enrolling immigrants in a school in the New York City Police Department, asking the federal government to reopen a former military airport for immigrants, and intending to convert an old closed hotel into a thousand-room immigration shelter. In addition, the New York City government recently arranged buses to transport migrants to other parts of New York State, causing dissatisfaction among officials in other parts of the state.
New York City's latest move is to use public school gymnasiums as temporary immigration shelters. The move sparked protests from parents. According to New York Mayor Eric Adams, the use of school facilities to accommodate immigrants is an "extreme" measure, but the city's capacity has reached its limits and "there is no choice."
In the face of a surging wave of immigration, Adams issued an executive order last week suspending the law that "homeless people must find accommodation within a specified time frame."
Reduced to a prop for party struggle
New York and Chicago are governed by Democrats, and their immigration conundrums stem in part from partisanship.
Since last year, due to partisan and local interests, Republican-ruled state governments such as Texas and Florida have repeatedly transferred large numbers of migrants illegally crossing the southern border of the United States to Democratic-run cities, including New York, Chicago and Washington. Perhaps one of the most impressive images was last Christmas Eve, when hundreds of Latin American immigrants were transported in biting cold from Texas by three buses to the residence of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, D.C., as a "weapon" for Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott to attack the administration of Democratic President Joseph Biden.
Migrants line up to board a transit vehicle in San Antonio, Texas, United States, September 30, 2022. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Nick Wagner)
According to NBC, the scene outside the vice president's residence repeated twice last week, when two buses from Texas brought dozens of immigrants on the day the illegal immigration rapid deportation order expired and on the night of the 14th.
According to the US "Capitol Hill" daily newspaper, Abbott posted on social media last week that Texas has shipped more than 17,000 immigrants to some "sanctuary cities", of which more than 9,200 are destined for Washington.
According to Reuters, Abbott launched another "bus transfer of migrants" operation earlier this month to ease the pressure on migrants in border areas and express dissatisfaction with the Biden administration's "too lenient" immigration policies. In addition to Washington, New York and Chicago, Texas began transferring immigrants to Denver, Colorado, on the 18th, and Denver Mayor and Democrat Michael Hancock is struggling to accommodate new immigrants.
The daily newspaper Capitol Hill quoted U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas as commenting that "government officials use immigration as a tool to achieve political ends" and are "sad." (Gao Jie)