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"Tijuana, First-hand Facts of the Red-Tent Asylum Process"


My mind is so full of information that I want to share with you all from my week in Tijuana. This post will be just that, information. Factual and first hand. Witnessed and experienced by me.
Thousands of migrants from all over the world, mainly from Central America, have traveled to Tijuana’s west U.S. port of entry seeking safety, better economic conditions, and/or to be with family already in the U.S. My motivation for taking this volunteer trip was to help the families in the extreme asylum-seeking cases - those who live in terror and fear both IN their home country and FROM their home country. Gangs and governments work hand in hand to target and terrorize families for their own personal interests.
There is a list. The list has numbers on it. Asylum seekers want to get a number from this list and they want their number to be called. Like a deli. I was incapable of finding answers as to who creates this list, who decides how many numbers are on the list, and basically any other information that could lead me to believe that this process is: 1) Legal; or 2) Held accountable by any authority or official agency whatsoever, Mexican or U.S., or otherwise.
The numbers are hastily written on a scratch piece of paper by a person under a red tent and holding a megaphone (who is often themselves, an asylum-seeker). This person changes on a daily or weekly basis. I don’t know why, or where they go when they’re done, or how the next list-person is chosen, or who chooses them, or how that person gets trained in list rules or procedures, or what those guidelines are, etc. I was in an organization with doctors, lawyers, and all kinds of experts who couldn’t figure this out. I suspect, and most attorneys agree, because it’s an illegal process and there are no policies or documentation to suggest otherwise.
Anyway…The list/mega-phone person begins calling out names of asylum-hopefuls around 7am every day. If their name is called, they go up to the red tent and receive this scratch paper with a number. This can be anywhere from 0 to maybe 50 people (while I was here, the average was about 5 numbers given out per day). Then, the list/mega-phone person begins to call out numbers that were previously given out. Zero to 40 numbers were called everyday this week. These zero to 40 lucky number holders will then take all of their belongings over to a line, and will be loaded into a white, government van, and transported to the Ice box. 
As a side note, number holders must show up at this spot every morning at 7am, with all their family and belongings JUST IN CASE their number happens to get called that day. Again, no one knows how many numbers will be called any given day. So I often saw the same families, every morning, with their luggage, listening intently for their number to be called. Some days, the list/mega-phone person re-called numbers from the previous day for those who may have missed it. Other days, they did not. What happens if they missed their number called? I don’t know. Where are these families sleeping as they wait out this process? I don’t know. I don’t know. While they are waiting, many have been robbed, raped, beaten, and their official documents stolen. Mexico does not provide support or protection for them. The U.S. does not provide support or protection for them. And returning to their home country, from which they fled, would be the most dangerous option for them.
Anyway… Once the lucky few are ready to be taken in a government van to the Ice box, we are able to give them some advice. Don’t wear your coat as your outer layer. Change clothes, right here, in the middle of everyone, and put your warmest layer on the bottom. Because the Ice box is cold. Very cold (that’s why it’s known as the Ice box!). And they will take all your clothing except for your base layer. If they don’t have socks, we give them socks. You will be separated into groups: Men, women, and children, and placed in different “boxes” unless it is a mother and infant (a cold, crowded, cement room). You’ll be there for an undetermined amount of days. Write important phone numbers on your arm, right now, with this permanent marker because they will take your phone and THEN tell you you can make a phone call. They will take your luggage (that you may get back, or that may get “lost”). Take a photo of your child’s birth certificate, showing you are their parent, and text it to somebody. Anybody. Because they will take your phone and your documents, and then question the legitimacy of your child. Sign this child separation form, saying you don’t give consent to be separated from your child. We don’t know if this form will be acknowledged or if it holds any power, but it’s signed by an attorney and can’t hurt. If you are seeking asylum, prepare mentally for your interview, proving that your life is in danger in your home country and that you cannot be protected by your government. 
Everyone in that van will be treated as if they are a criminal and a security threat, even if there is zero cause to believe this (they are seeking asylum LEGALLY). It is purposefully confusing, miserable, and demeaning in order to deter asylum-seekers. And some do get deterred and go back to their country. Others may remain in Mexico and try to make a life because it is safer than going back home or getting deported. Those who make it to the other side statistically and most likely will be denied asylum and put on a one-way flight back to the country from which they fled. The best case scenario for an asylum-seeker to the U.S. at this port of entry in Tijuana, is that they will wait in Mexico for weeks, homeless. Then taken to the Ice box and detention and separated from family members for an undetermined amount of time. And then released to figure out a life in the U.S. 


That is what I know. I experienced and witnessed this process all 6 mornings. I’m not an attorney, so I could not assist with legal, but I could speak with people, in my limited Spanish. I learned their names, where they were from, asked if we could do anything for them, tell them we could give them lunch for free, a legal consult for free, and medical assessment for free. Most importantly, my purpose was to show them that I cared, and that other people in the world care about their well-being and their future. More to come another time…


The red tent. Where the list/megaphone person calls a serious of names and then a series of numbers. If your name is called, you receive a number to hopefully be called another day. If you already have a number and it gets called, you take your families and all your belonging to the next step in the long, asylum-seeking process. The Ice box.
Not a great picture in order to protect identities.


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