On January 5, Yanisey González managed to reach the United States. The American dream that she seemed to have achieved was cut short when the Border Patrol put her in a van along with migrants from Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guatemala to return them to the border with Mexico and deliver them to agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM). “They didn’t give me the option to request asylum,” she tells 14ymedio.
“They gave me a document with a code,” said the 27-year-old, whom the Border Patrol officer said was her pass for the parole. “I must scan it and do the paperwork from Mexico to request the temporary stay permit.”
Yanisey was taken to Hermosillo (Sonora), a place from where she thought she would be deported. Last Friday she entered the Ana Gabriela Guevara Gymnasium, which since October 2022 has been set up as a shelter for migrants. In this place there are more than 200 Cubans.
The young woman, originally from Pinar del Río, made the journey along with her cousin and a friend, but they were detained in Veracruz and deported. “I will not return to Cuba. There, if you go out into the streets, they give you a beating and even jail. If there are blackouts, there are no medicines, they reduce your bill… for the government, everything is the blockade.”
Daniel, another Cuban who is in the shelter, left the island by way of Nicaragua. “We made a stopover in Panama before Managua, but the entire journey, Mexico has been a nightmare. The agents extort you with the threat of deportation. For all procedures you have to pay. The coyotes They are always where you go.”
This habanero is accompanied by his cousin and an uncle. All were returned through the Piedras Negras (Coahuila) border. “Until we arrived in Sonora, they informed us that now we must do the process from Mexico and that if we insist on crossing, they will deny us the parole for five years”.
I will not return to Cuba. There, if you go out into the streets, they give you a stick and even jail. If there are blackouts, there are no medicines, they reduce your bill
A source who preferred not to give his name confirmed that there are 221 people in the gym shelter and that another group with 150 migrants is expected to arrive this Thursday.
The director of Attention to Priority Groups and Migrants, Bernardeth Ruiz Romero, explained that Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans are provided with health services, as the number of returnees increases, they will be taken to other shelters. “We are providing the pertinent humanitarian attention: a roof, legal guidance, we have even promoted some days with Migration.”
The governor of Sonora, Alfonso Durazo. announced the possibility of employing migrants, without detailing conditions and salaries. “If it is in their interest, we would seek to accommodate them at work and if it is in their interest, help them on their return, with resources from the state government or under federal programs for return by air to their countries of origin.
The Border Patrol began the return to Mexico last week of Cubans and Nicaraguans. The expulsion of these migrants who are in Hermosillo occurred under Title 42, a controversial regulation implemented by the previous president, Donald Trump, during the pandemic and that allows rapid deportations.
The Government of Mexico supports the program of the Joe Biden Administration through which, in exchange for 30,000 paroles monthly, the US will deport Cubans and others in an illegal situation.
In the state of Chiapas, several Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Guatemalans protested this Thursday for attention to their transit demands. Migration let them know that the US would return them if they entered illegally.
Despite the announcement of the closure of the border between the United States and Mexico, the crossing of Cubans continues along the Nicaraguan route.
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