Millions to be affected by Trump’s border policies

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Former Takata manufacturing factory
The former Takata manufacturing factory, which will be used as a makeshift shelter

On Monday 20 January, the White House issued a briefing stating that the newly inaugurated US president “will take bold action to secure our border and protect American communities”, including a deportation operation to “address the record border crossings of criminal aliens under the prior administration.” On the same day the office of Customs and Border Protection announced that asylum seekers could no longer use the CBP One phone app to schedule the necessary appointments to begin the asylum procedure, and that existing appointments were cancelled. Less than a week later, the deportations have started, and those people waiting for a CBP One appointment are now stranded.

While it is tempting to talk about the injustice and possible illegality of these measures, about the harsh and hateful language, and about the impossibility of actually carrying out so many deportations, the prayer today is for the literally millions of people who are being affected and for those who are responding to their needs.

For several months the Mexican government has been making plans to receive deported Mexicans. In an initiative called “Mexico Embraces You,” it is establishing huge reception centers and mobile kitchens in nine locations along the US/Mexican border. Here in Agua Prieta, it appears that a shelter is being prepared at a large industrial facility that once was a Takata manufacturing factory, one of the maquiladoras through which overseas corporations take advantage of labour costs that are a fraction of those north of the border. This shelter, however, is not one of the nine being built by the Mexican government.

On Wednesday 22 January, nine people were deported from the US into Agua Prieta, and on Thursday two INM (National Institute of Migration) buses were parked in front of the Migrant Resource Center to take people to the new shelter. Additionally, that same day, IOM workers came to the Migrant Resource Center to install video information programs that returning migrants will be able to watch. (The IOM – International Organization for Migration – is an office of the United Nations that “promotes humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all.”)

  • Pray for all the people newly arrived in the US who may be affected by these policies, for those awaiting asylum hearings, for those who have been granted Temporary Protected Status, for those who came to the US as children (Dreamers), and for those who have lived undocumented in the US for many years.
  • Pray for Mexican government workers and for members of migrant solidarity organisations who are right now working to meet the needs of so many people.

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