What’s happening on the border right now? The quick and easy answer is, “Not much.” Border Patrol is not deporting people through the port here in Douglas/Agua Prieta. That means no one is stopping at the Centro de Recursos para Migrantes for water or information, and there are no travelers wearing hooded sweatshirts and carrying backpacks on the streets of Agua Prieta. No one is looking for a way to get back to family in Mexico or to reconnect with a guide who will help them cross the border wall again and return to family in the US.
What is happening to the increasing number of people, especially Mexicans, who are being detained in the US? Well, some are held in detention facilities, and some are deported to the southern US/Mexican border; but increasingly they are flown to cities in the south of Mexico. Many of these are people who have lived in the US for many years and no longer have family in Mexico.
In addition, no one is arriving at CAME, the migrant shelter in Agua Prieta with the hope of seeking asylum in the US. But just because Mexicans are not coming to the border looking for asylum, it does not mean that they are no longer in danger. The organized criminal forces are still using violence and intimidation to chase people off their land in the south of Mexico. It is just that these people do not have anywhere to go.
Right now, there are anecdotal reports of more Border Patrol apprehensions here in this area. It is hard to know if these apprehensions are related to lack of asylum access or not. Are migrants fleeing violence so desperate that they are willing to “jump the fence” to get away? Or, maybe, the people being apprehended were recently deported from the US, and they are trying to return.
There is still much to pray for even though there is little evidence of migrant activity here.
- Pray for the approximately 2000 people in the US whom ICE is quietly detaining every day.
- Pray for the more than 60,000 people in ICE detention facilities.
- Pray for those in Mexico and around the world who are fleeing violence and have nowhere to go.
- Pray for the workers and volunteers in Agua Prieta who remain faithful to their commitment to help “people in mobility.”
- Pray for justice and peace.
