Chrismar Villarroel, brother Sebastian, and husband Diego Gonzalez snuggled up on a beige sofa Wednesday afternoon at Crossroads Mission in Nogales, Arizona.
Last year, the trio left their native Venezuela and arrived in Nogales in early April. This marks another step in a months-long journey to obtain political asylum in the United States.
Along the way, they became aware of a federal policy known as Title 42. This will direct U.S. immigration officials to immediately deport most immigrants who try to cross the southern border. Nonetheless, young Venezuelans between the ages of 19 and 23 continued their journey north.
They arrived across the border from El Paso, Texas, in Ciudad Juarez and logged into CBP One, a mobile app created by the US government. Eventually, they secured an asylum reservation in Nogales, Arizona.
“And thank God we’re here,” Sebastian Villarroel told NI.
Title 42 is scheduled to end on May 11th. Officials say the number of immigrants trying to enter the United States may increase. Already, some border cities, particularly El Paso, are experiencing an influx of asylum-seeking migrants in need of shelter, food and other necessities.
But the stories of Diego Gonzalez, Chrismer and Sebastian Villarroel are unusual in the border town of Nogales, where few asylum seekers stay long.
“I have never seen anything like this,” said Jason Gonzalez, Director of Operations for Crossroads Mission, of the facility’s South American guests.
Migrants continue to arrive in Nogales, Sonora, seeking asylum and approaching the local port of entry. However, they rarely stay in Nogales, Arizona, and the majority of Crossroads Mission’s customers are not asylum seekers. Even his three Venezuelans currently staying there anticipate the new destination. They plan to head to the Northeast and continue the asylum-seeking process within the Immigration Court.
According to Crossroads staff and county officials, most immigrants arriving in Nogales, Arizona, head to Tucson where more resources are available.
And as Title 42 nears its scheduled end, we’ll see some asylum seeker activity in Nogales. For example, Santa Cruz County is working with neighboring Pima County to bring immigrants to the Tucson area by bus. Also, at the port of entry, the US Customs and Border Protection appears to be making its own preparations.
The former bank site on North Grand Avenue now serves as a welcoming center for asylum seekers who have completed immigration formalities into the United States.
Photo by Angela Gervasi
But on the whole, at least so far, little seems to have changed here. was relatively quiet.
“This brings us an improvement, doesn’t it? Because people live in peace,” Sebastian Villarroel said of Nogales. I’m not going to.”
‘They closed the border’
The Trump administration enacted Title 42 early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal officials said the reason was to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but some public health experts have questioned and disputed the effectiveness of the policy.
Despite this, the protocol remained in place, and to date more than 2.7 million people have been displaced along its southern border.
Several times in recent months, Title 42 has appeared to expire, bringing hope and confusion among immigrants. At one point, it was scheduled to end on December 21, 2022 after a federal judge found it illegal. That day in Nogales, Sonora, NI spoke with several Venezuelan asylum seekers in an attempt to clarify the ever-changing landscape of this policy.
“Did they finish it? Didn’t they finish it?” asked asylum seeker Jonathan Yoel Zurbaran at the time.
However, the policy remained in place after Chief Justice John Roberts of the United States Supreme Court temporarily put the termination of Title 42 on hold.
For a period of time, certain immigrant groups, including Venezuelans and Cubans, were exempt from Title 42. This meant they could enter the United States and claim political asylum without being immediately deported or deported. Then, last fall, the U.S. government extended Title 42 to ban many individuals from those countries as well.
Sebastian Villarroel, one of Crossroads Mission’s Venezuelan asylum seekers, remembers the change in policy.
“October. The 12th of last year was when they closed the border. Right?” he asked his brother-in-law.
“Yes,” Diego Gonzalez confirmed.
But the three were already on their way to the United States when they learned Title 42 could affect their immigration attempts.
“Walk, walk, rain, sun, water. Everything. The train,” recalls Sebastian Villarroel.
“Everything,” Diego Gonzalez repeated.
According to them, the trip also included trekking through dangerous jungle corridors. A densely forested area known as the Darien Gap stretches across southern Panama. According to UN data, the number of migrants passing through the region is increasing, especially from Venezuela. At least 36 people died along the corridor in 2022, but the United Nations says the death toll could rise.
But the ongoing situation in Venezuela – economic turmoil and widespread food shortages – has forced three asylum seekers to leave the country, they told NI.
“We want to give our families a better life,” added Chrismar Villarroel.
Title 42 has not officially ended yet, so it’s unclear whether the expiration of the policy will result in more migrants traveling through corridors such as the Darien Gap and the Sonoran Desert.
On the final day of Title 42, the U.S. government took a number of steps to block undocumented border crossings. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorcas announced plans to open regional immigration processing centers in Latin American countries. These centers will allow migrants to apply for legal documents “before they reach the border,” Mayorcas said.
And on Tuesday, Homeland Security announced it would deploy 1,500 troops to the southern border, but the DHS did not specify where the troops would be stationed.
But more rurally, the county is not only in Pima County, but also in partnership with the Tucson-based nonprofit Casa Aritas, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to Soveira Castro, the county’s emergency management chief. making adjustments.
Speaking to NI on Tuesday, Nogales Mayor Jorge Maldonado echoed similar sentiments, saying he had never witnessed an influx of migrants in his hometown.
Nationally, Maldonado said: Unfortunately, the news always reports bad things. In fact, it’s very safe. ”
Maldonado said his biggest concern is the potential disruption to daily life in this bilateral community. In 2018, as more migrants moved to the southern border from Mexico and Central America, the U.S. government deployed troops to the region and installed concertina he wires along the walls of Nogales. Also, as Maldonado recalled, authorities blocked lanes at the Dennis DeConcini customs port, causing hours of delays for students, workers and shoppers traveling to and from Ambos Nogales.
“I hope we don’t see any containers at the border and shut down from six lanes to two lanes. ” says Maldonado.
Citing social media posts, Nogales, Sonora newspaper El Diario de Sonora reported several concertina wires strung across the lanes of Port de Concini on Wednesday morning. According to news outlets, U.S. officials said the wires were temporary and could only be used when Title 42 expired.
The CBP One app, which Chrismar Villarroel, Sebastian Villarroel, and Diego Gonzalez downloaded when they arrived in Ciudad Juarez, is the method the U.S. Department of Homeland Security encourages immigrants to use to initiate asylum applications. While federal officials hail the app’s success, immigrants are repeating a different story.
“The download was fine, but it was difficult to get[an appointment],” recalls Krismar Villaroel.
Other issues, such as app crashes and limited language options, have also been documented by immigration advocacy groups.
They estimate that it took about two months for the Venezuelans to actually get on board. However, the reservation was set to be made in Nogales, Arizona, rather than Juarez, where they were staying.
Nogales is currently the only port of entry in Arizona to process reservations through the CBP One app, and federal officials have indicated no plans to expand the app to other ports (Douglas, Lukeville, San Luis, etc.) .
Three young adults were waiting for dinner at the mission when we sat together on Wednesday. 19-year-old Chrismar’s girlfriend, Villarroel, scrolled through her phone as clips of her video echoed throughout the room. Her 20-year-old brother, Sebastian Villarroel, was smiling as she washed off her facial mask and patted his skin.
When asked what he hopes to do in the next few months, Gonzalez quickly replied, “Study.”
“Work and study,” repeated Sebastian Villarroel. Then, “Work on my English,” he adds cautiously, switching from Spanish to practicing a less familiar language.
More steps must be taken as the three continue to pursue asylum. At court hearings, they must present their case to an immigration judge and prove that they have faced persecution in their home country.
For now, they said, the situation is improving in Nogales.
Sebastian Villarroel said: “In different countries they have treated us, in our country they have treated us. But here it is better.”
