Pandemia en la Frontera III: One family beats the odds
By Bridget Algee-Hewitt & Casey Miller
As we stand now at the crossroads of death and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, we are wise to remember that there remains rampant another epidemic with great human consequences: la pandemia en la frontera, the pandemic on the borderlands. We must not lose sight of the humanitarian crisis at the México/U.S. border that threatens our health as a nation.
Dangerous rhetoric about barriers grows louder and the voices of the mothers, fathers and children making the harrowing journey from their homes in Latin America to cross into the United States are all but silenced. Their voices that speak their immigrant stories are replaced by political rhetoric that rationalizes their marginalization and sustains our new culture of selective justice.
As an antidote and counter-narrative to the current anti-immigrant sentiment, let us give breath to those who struggle. By creating spaces to tell their stories, we might listen to those who have not yet been heard. These narratives are a testament to their resilience and fortitude.
Here we share the story of Oscar and his family. While their names have been changed, the events they suffered through are truthful representations of current refugee experiences.
Oscar fled Central America with his partner, Jessica, and their two daughters in October 2019.In November they entered the United States through the port of entry in Piedras Negras, Coahuila — which is on the other side of Eagle Pass, Texas, and divided by the Río Grande. At that time, Jessica was seven months pregnant. Despite Jessica’s late-term pregnancy, the family was placed in the Remain in México program, also known as MPP, and returned to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, to await their removal proceedings. Nuevo Laredo is one of the most dangerous places for migrants in México. The Department of State has classed the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, a Level 4 Do Not Travel area; and migrants are systematically abducted, extorted, raped, murdered and trafficked from Nuevo Laredo — oftentimes in the immediate vicinity of the migrant processing center.
Out of fear for their lives in Nuevo Laredo, the family sought refuge in a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras. There, Jessica’s condition caught the attention of a local human rights advocate, Casey, who began advocating for the family’s removal from MPP, since under original official guidance, pregnant women should not be placed into MPP to begin with. She connected the family with two attorneys, one at UT Law School in Austin and another with the Proyecto de Ayuda para Solicitantes de Asilo (PASA).
In late January, Jessica went into labor and sought medical attention with U.S. border authorities. CBP brought Jessica and her two daughters into custody. Jessica spent the weekend in pain and in active labor. Doctors originally told her she had one more month of pregnancy and returned her to the CBP holding facility. Jessica knew this was wrong, and after spending the weekend in CBP detention, was returned to the hospital to deliver her baby, a baby girl named Linda.
After giving birth, she and her children were released to family in Texas and removed from MPP. Oscar was not able to cross with them, was not removed from MPP and remained in México and in the MPP program until mid-March. Through his attorney with PASA and an honorable and empathetic immigration judge, Oscar was able to change venues from San Antonio to Dallas, which in turn removed him from MPP and allowed him to enter the US to proceed with his asylum case safely. Even though he entered the U.S. on the same day that COVID was categorized as a pandemic by the WHO, he was still arbitrarily detained by ICE and subsequently transferred to three different facilities in two states, risking the spread of COVID among detainees.
Despite the COVID outbreak and the trauma of his being severed from family, Oscar remained in detention for almost three months. Jessica and his daughters suffered this separation from their husband and father in a state of distress, as they worried for his health and safety and longed for their reunion and for Linda and Oscar to finally meet.
The “deterrent” policies that seek to criminalize Latin Americans and militarize our southern borderlands bring no more security to the U.S. In tearing apart immigrant families by detaining or deporting the young and old, the firm and weak alike, we actively dehumanize those only seeking shelter. These actions only serve, therefore, to erode the foundations of a just and humane way of life.
After multiple parole denials, but with the a fighting spirit and a savvy attorney at his side, Oscar was finally approved for release in early June, more than four months after Linda was born and after almost three months of arbitrary ICE detention. Oscar, Jessica and their family have since been reunited. After this nine month, arduous journey to seek asylum, Oscar and his family represent some of the few who beat the odds and are considered to be among the lucky ones. No one should be so “lucky.”
Bridget Algee-Hewitt, PhD, is the Senior Res Scientist at CCSRE and Quantitative Researcher in the SGB Data Science R&D Team at Facebook. Her social justice research program centers on method development for the identification of the missing and unknown dead in a human rights context, with expertise in determining ancestry and age-at-death.
Casey Miller is an organizer and immigrant rights advocate based in San Antonio, Texas. She works transnationally in México and the United States, fighting for the legal rights of asylum seekers. The majority of her work is along the border where she gathers information and shares her findings with attorneys, reporters and other advocates who can assist in fighting for the people whose right to seek asylum is in jeopardy.
