Deadly Fire draws attention to US responsibility for dangerous conditions on the Mexican border
Policies agreed to by both countries have created overcrowding, sprawling tent cities and "conditions that amount to torture", as well as put migrants lives in danger.
Welcome back piratas!
We had a week full of deadlines and edits, but we aren’t complaining! The buccaneer lifestyle of freelance journalism is unpredictable and we take the work when we can find it.
Daniela and Joshua filed three stories about their recent trip to Chocó Colombia, large parts of which are controlled by criminal armed groups rather than the government.
Hopefully the payments arrive before a reporting trip Joshua has been organizing for the indigenous Venezuelan border region of La Guajira. Because if not, he may be walking there.
But this week we are focusing on one of our favorite topics, or least favorite topics, depending on your perspective: border policy.
A deadly fire in Mexico put US migration policy in the spotlight this week. We’re explaining exactly how Biden’s border policy is contributing to deadly conditions for would-be asylum seekers in Mexico.
Deadly Fire draws attention to US responsibility for deadly conditions on the Mexican border
Policies agreed to by both countries have created overcrowding, sprawling tent cities and "conditions that amount to torture", as well as put migrants lives in danger.
Mexican and US border policy has created a deadly bottleneck on their shared border. Tens of thousands of migrants, many who have been expelled by Biden’s “transit ban”, find themselves trapped and without options, selling candy on the streets to get by and sleeping in ever-growing tent cities, or on the streets, in every Mexican city near the US border.
When Biden’s new rule was proposed just over a month ago, human rights organizations predicted it would get people killed. Sadly they were correct. A fire at a Mexican detention center killed 40 migrants, and wounded 27 more as detainees who had committed no crime under Mexican law were left locked in cages as the fire spread, guards did nothing.
Many of those who died didn’t even understand why they had been locked up, and possessed documents to be in the country legally.
The incident illustrates how US policy has made conditions more dangerous for migrants who have been denied the right to claim asylum— migrants who find themselves at the mercy of indifferent officials, criminal groups, arbitrary detentions at overcrowded facilities and dangerous informal crossings
Biden’s “transit bad” or “asylum” ban is similar to President Donald Trump’s “third country transit ban” — a policy Biden once campaigned against and a federal judge ruled unlawful — but with even more asylum restrictions.
It is the most draconic border policy the US has ever enacted, and many legal organizations believe it is a violation of 1951 US law that grants the right to asylum for anyone on US soil regardless of how they arrived.
And Biden’s asylum ban is likely to be expanded when Title 42 is finally retired in May. Title 42 measure was a Trump era blanket measure implemented during the beginning of the COVID pandemia that has expelled more than 2.5 million people.
As part of efforts to clamp down on a surge or asylum claims in the last year, the US has pressured Mexico to accept the hundreds of thousands who have been expelled by the US under both Title 42 as well as Biden’s asylum ban, and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who has faced his own criticism for human rights abuses of migrants, has been all too happy to comply.
“Biden’s ‘transit ban’ depends entirely upon Mexican cooperation to function,” explained Adam Isacson, Border and Defense coordinator for the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). “and any expansion of that program will also require a deal with Mexico to accept even more numbers of expelled asylum seekers.”
Mexican policies to clamp down on migrants, at the insistence of the US, have resulted in a complete breakdown of Mexican detention centers. A lack of transparency at the faculties, where the press is prohibited from visiting, and safety regulations are virtually non-existent, allows Mexican authorities to act with impunity.
Severe overcrowding is the norm, and protests by detainees have been common, as have riots. Mexican officials have also faced accusations of “conditions that amount to torture” in some detention centers by the United Nations as well as human rights groups.
“For Mexican presidents, there is generally no political cost to crackdowns on migrants,” said Isacson. “The country, which has never before had a foreign-born population of more than one-percent isn’t used to being a migration destination.”
Xenophobic sentiment, especially towards Central American migrants, is common and in many ways “resembles the rhetoric we see from anti-migrant hard-liners in the United States,” said Isacson.
Biden, despite criticism from the United Nations, human and civil rights organizations, border watchdog groups, and despite breaking his own campaign promises to “expand and protect the asylum system”, has similarly avoided impactful criticism from his own support base, despite his migration policies being more restrictive than those of his predecessor Donald Trump.
The US public seems largely unconcerned with border policy that is having deadly consequences. And it isn’t just Mexican border cities where asylum seekers and migrants are endangered. As the US closes legal avenues to enter the country, desperate migrants are pushed into informal crossings— a dynamic that empowers criminal groups and human smugglers in the region.
Last year, 53 migrants from Mexico and Central America were found dead in a sweltering tractor-trailer in Southwest San Antonio. It was the deadliest migrant smuggling case in US history.
Two Texas men were charged in the case, and are currently awaiting trial.
The fire at the detention center in Ciudad Juarez last week drew international headlines, and criticism of AMLO’s policies. The Mexican government, after first attempting to play down the incident, has since announced the arrest of 9 individuals involved in the case, including one migrant they claim may have started the fire as a protest.
But neither the United States government, nor their Mexican counterparts have acknowledged that blame for the incident goes higher than the individuals who were present at the facility that night.
Watchdog groups, journalists on the border and human rights groups have drawn attention to the dynamic however in increasingly critical statements over the last week.
“These deaths and injuries are the direct result of deterrence policies carried out by the US and Mexico,” said Ari Sawyer of Human Rights Watch in a public statement Thursday.
“The death of at least 40 migrants is a consequence of the restrictive and cruel immigration policies shared by the governments of Mexico and the United States,” said Amnesty International on March 29.
José Díaz Briseño, a journalist in Mexico who covers border issues called it “The externalization of US migration policies.”
When asked if the US shares some responsibility for the deaths, Isacson responded simply “absolutely”.
Last year, 1,433 people lost their lives migrating in the Americas region, the deadliest year on record since statistics have been kept by the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the families of the migrants who died, a majority of whom were Guatemalan, are demanding answers and pushing back on the narrative that it was migrants who started the fire.
The exact circumstances likely will not be clear for some time, but one fact certainly is: predictions that the border policy of Biden and AMLO would prove to be deadly were all too correct.
The Big Headlines in LATAM
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso will soon face charges of embezzlement and corruption before the nation’s General Assembly. Ecuador’s Constitutional Court handed down a decision for the trial to proceed after viewing evidence, and the proceedings now pass the Legislative branch.
The petition, filed by a majority of the opposition in the National Assembly, seeks to remove the president from office alleging crimes against the public administration and alleged embezzlement or misappropriation of funds.
Lasso has claimed that the accusations are politically driven, and intended to “destabilize” his government.
In a blow to ongoing negotiations between the Colombian government and rebel group the National Liberation Army (ELN), rebels killed 9 Colombian soldiers in Norte de Santander. The ELN and the government have been in talks aimed at a peace deal under which ELN would disarm since late last year.
Eight other soldiers were injured in the attack, which included the use of improvised explosive devices and long-range weapons.
Bolsonaro has returned to Brazil after a self-imposed exile in the United States following his narrow election loss. It is the first time he is back in his home country since his supporters stormed Congress on 8 January.
He faces two ongoing investigations under Brazilian law, one into his involvement into the capital attack, and a second that claims he illegally accepted millions of dollars of jewelry in Saudi Arabia as president in 2019.
What we’re writing
Last week’s piece on the drop of coca prices in Colombia, the raw ingredient used to make cocaine, received a flood of messages from people asking why exactly the market crash was occurring. So he did a piece digging into the factor’s behind the collapse for Al Jazeera English.
Experts say it is due to a host of factors, including market shifts to synthetic drugs, domestic politics, regional coca production increases, and the changing strategies of criminal groups.
You can read all about it here.
Spanish word of the week
This week’s Spanish word of the week isn’t technically Spanish!
“Lawfare”. This is an interesting phrase, an English word that is uncommon in English. But in Spanish language political conversations, it pops up often nonetheless. Used often by leftist politicians in Latin America who claim that they are being unfairly attacked by their political opponents, it describes the use of the law by a country against its enemies, especially by challenging the legality of military, domestic or foreign policy.
A common defense for those who have been accused of overreach or political corruption, it is sort of the LATAM version of “the deep state is trying discredit me.”
We at PWS are deeply curious after the recent news regarding US President Donald Trump, who may face arrest in the coming weeks, if this word will become more utilized in the United States.