U.S. southern border becomes global entry point for asylum seekers

Washington:

As political and racial persecution in his native Mauritania worsened, Barry began to look for a way out.

He scoured discussion groups on social media for advice on clandestine immigration and soon discovered that a long wait for a dangerous sea voyage to Europe in a leaky open boat wasn’t the only option. That’s America—via Mexico.

The July journey by Barry, who asked only to be identified by his first name, by road from Mexico reflects the reality that the U.S. southern border is increasingly becoming a transit point for asylum seekers from around the world, not just Latin American migrants.

Bypassing not only Europe but America’s traditionally immigrant-heavy coastal cities, Barry headed to Columbus, the capital of west-central Ohio, where the Mauritanian diaspora has grown dramatically.

“I just want to take back my freedom of expression, my freedom of expression,” said the former NGO and government worker, referring to last year’s crackdown on activists and protests by authorities in a West African country known for discriminating against black citizens. repression.

As rich countries grapple with an era of mass migration, authorities there tend to focus on deadly sea lanes from Africa to Europe and the long-term trend of northward flows from poorer Latin American countries.

But of the nearly 2.5 million border crossings recorded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in fiscal year 2023, 1.26 million came from countries other than the usual source countries of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

This is a 234% increase from 2021, when approximately 378,000 nationals of “other” countries crossed the southern border.

For Africans in particular, the Border Patrol recorded more than 58,000 crossings in 2023, a 346% increase from the previous year.

Some 15,000 Mauritanians like Bari were among them, more than the 13,000 Africans who had traveled across the continent the previous year.

“Quasi-legal” routes via Turkey

There are no specific drivers for the influx of tens of thousands of people from as far away as China and Russia to the Mexico-U.S. border.

Most of the immigrants were legal, at least initially: Bari flew first to Turkey, then to South America, and finally headed north by land. The changing routes are widely shared on social media and, according to U.S. border officials, through “pseudo-legitimate travel agencies” in West Africa.

In November, the United States sanctioned a Mexican charter flight operator known to transport Cubans and Haitians to Nicaragua, where the country’s lax visa policies mean people often enter Nicaragua before traveling overland to the United States.

Some experts say Europe’s efforts to block shipping routes from the Sahara and the Mediterranean – including funding the Libyan coast guard to intercept migrants at sea – could prompt more people to flock to the United States.

“You’ve seen the way they patrol the area, but now people are taking different routes,” said Dauda Sesay, national network director for the U.S. nonprofit Communities Together Africa.

“Want to enter the country legally”

There has been a Mauritanian community in Columbus, Ohio, for two decades, but it was originally made up of refugees, such as the family of Houleye Thiam, president of the Mauritanian Human Rights Network.

She told AFP the city’s Mauritanian population may have doubled, from 4,000 to 7,000 to 8,000 people.

“You don’t really know they’re coming until they get here,” said the 42-year-old, who sometimes hears 25 different voice messages on WhatsApp asking about immigration.

Meanwhile, immigration issues are increasingly disrupting U.S. domestic politics ahead of the November 2024 election.

The Texas National Guard and the federal Border Patrol are vying for control of the U.S.-Mexico border as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump makes concerns about illegal immigration a centerpiece of his far-right campaign.

Ibrahima, another Mauritanian who recently arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio, said he “wanted to enter legally.” Cincinnati has a large and growing expat population.

The 38-year-old had been unsuccessfully seeking a scholarship to study in Europe before he became embroiled in anti-government protests at home and says he was arrested and tortured.

He has an older brother who is a U.S. citizen. But rather than go through the lengthy process of seeking regular immigration, he traveled across Mexico and applied for asylum.

“I want to be part of the growth of the American economy,” Ibrahima said.

He is waiting for a work permit to be issued while his asylum application is processed through the backlogged system.

Currently, “we don’t have the right to work… but we accept that.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)