While Morgan has championed the new policy, asylum seekers now living in Mexico only see desperation and terror. That’s because under the benignly named “Migration Protection Protocols” policy, they are being returned to some of Mexico’s most dangerous cities, where they are being preyed upon by highly organized cartels that have found a lucrative new source of revenue in Trump’s approach to migration.“We have sent asylum seekers back to Mexico, and said ‘hope you don’t die. Bye, bye’”
Migrants returned to Mexico prepare to be taken to a processing center in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico on Monday. Nuevo Laredo has seen an increase in cartel activity and violence. Migrants are finding themselves left to fend for themselves after being returned to Mexico. Sergio Flores/Vice News
Even African migrants, who are arriving at the U.S. border in record numbers, are getting squeezed. In August, Mexico said it would stop giving them visas that allowed them to legally transit the country en route to the U.S. The move prompted days of sustained protest in Southern Mexico by hundreds of Africans who had been waiting for the visa.“Trump has totally won,” said Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin. “It’s the death of access to asylum by a thousand cuts.”Trump’s actions include limiting how many asylum seekers are accepted at ports of entry; restricting the ability of victims of domestic and gang violence to qualify for asylum; signing a deal with Guatemala that would require asylum seekers who travel through that country to first seek protection there; and making it harder for asylum seekers to receive work permits while they wait for their cases to be decided.But the “crown jewel” of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, Leutert said, are the Migrant Protection Protocols.“Trump has totally won”
Phone's sit on a table at a migrant shelter in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico on Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. Sergio Flores/Vice News
A pair of boys eat watermelon at a migrant shelter in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019. Their father was hospitalized with pain in his appendix and was being looked after by a fellow migrant in the shelter. Sergio Flores/Vice News
For Paulina, who fled Venezuela with her husband and two boys, 13 and 5, that means only leaving her shelter in Nuevo Laredo when absolutely necessary. She believes they have a strong case for asylum, but she hasn’t been able to consult with a lawyer because they are unwilling to travel to Nuevo Laredo. Her boys haven’t attended school in three months.“It’s so hard, because they don’t understand. They don’t see the danger,” she said. “They don’t understand why we are here and don’t pass to the U.S.”Cover: A migrant mother and her son pose for a photo at a migrant shelter in in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico on Monday, Aug. 26, 2019. Nuevo Laredo has seen an increase in cartel activity and violence with the migrant crises. Under Trump's new policies, migrants are left to fend for themselves in some of Mexicos' most dangerous cities after being returned to Mexico. Sergio Flores/Vice News“It’s the death of access to asylum by a thousand cuts”