Die NYT berichtet am 05.03. über einen Anstieg der „illegalen“ Grenzpassagen in den letzten Monaten:
The number of migrant families crossing the southwest border has once again broken records, with unauthorized entries nearly double what they were a year ago, suggesting that the Trump administration’s aggressive policies have not discouraged new migration to the United States.
More than 76,000 migrants crossed the border without authorization in February, an 11-year high and a strong sign that stepped-up prosecutions, new controls on asylum and harsher detention policies have not reversed what remains a powerful lure for thousands of families fleeing violence and poverty.
Dabei kommen inzwischen nicht mehr überwiegend junge Männer über die Grenze, sondern Väter bzw. Mütter und Familien mit Kindern.
The difference is that the nature of immigration has changed, and the demographics of those arriving now are proving more taxing for border officials to accommodate. Most of those entering the country in earlier years were single men, most of them from Mexico, coming to look for work. If they were arrested, they could quickly be deported.
Now, the majority of border crossers are not single men but families — fathers from Honduras with adolescent boys they are pulling away from gang violence, mothers with toddlers from Guatemala whose farms have been lost to drought. While they may not have a good case to remain in the United States permanently, it is not so easy to speedily deport them if they arrive with children and claim protection under the asylum laws.
Families with children can be held in detention for no longer than 20 days, under a much-debated court ruling, and since there are a limited number of detention centers certified to hold families, the practical effect is that most families are released into the country to await their hearings in immigration court. The courts are so backlogged that it could take months or years for cases to be decided. Some people never show up for court at all.
Finally, detaining families even for the first few days after their arrival in the United States, while they are undergoing initial processing, is also a challenging job.
Often arriving exhausted, dehydrated, and some of them requiring urgent medical care, the families need food, diapers, infant formula and space to play. They can often spend days inside cramped concrete cells that were built to house the previous generation of border crossers — young, single men who would likely be there only a few hours.
Derweil berichtet die TAZ vom 07.03.2019 über die Situation von aus den USA nach Honduras deportierten Menschen:
[…] Abschiebung ist Teil der Realität in Honduras, das im Jahresschnitt mehr als 100.000 Menschen verlassen – Tendenz steigend. „Parallel dazu gehen auch die Abschiebezahlen hoch“, so Schwester Lidia. 75.279 Honduraner*innen wurden im Jahr 2018 in den drei Aufnahmezentren in Empfang genommen.
In San Pedro Sula, der Industriemetropole des Landes, landet täglich mindestens eine Maschine aus den USA mit 80 bis 110 abgeschobenen Migrant*innen. […]