Thread: Migrant camps on Mexican border are scrambling to avert “mass infection” from coronav

Migrant camps on Mexican border are scrambling to avert “mass infection” from coronavirus

Max de Haldevang

Quartz March 20, 2020, 10:16 AM EDT











People wait in line for a meal at the Matamoros migrant encampment. Self-isolating isn’t straightforward at the encampment in Matamoros, a Mexican border city home to about 2,500 people living in tents, waiting on US asylum and immigration claims.


There are no confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the camp, but humanitarian organizations are working around the clock to prepare for the “devastating” effect the virus could have if someone does become infected, said Andrea Leiner, director of strategic plans at Matamoros for Global Response Management (GRM), a medical nonprofit. “If Covid does come to our camp, the environment is ripe for mass infection and severe illness,” she said.


The camp’s inhabitants, who mostly traveled from Central America in the infamous “migrant caravans,” now live on a dusty former soccer pitch right next to the Rio Grande. “It looks like a little village from hundreds of years ago, when you didn’t have running water, you didn’t have electricity, you didn’t have the basic amenities we think of as being critical or needed in everyday life,” said Andrea Rudnik, co-founder of Team Brownsville, a nonprofit providing aid from the US side of the border. “It’s extremely dusty. When you get onto the river levees, you get hit with waves of dust and dirt in your face—and that’s constant.”


Mexican media have reported a possible case in the town of Matamoros and a confirmed case in Reynosa, another border town with a large encampment.


While US president Donald Trump announced this week he planned to close the border with Mexico, immigration hearings have so far been ongoing. That means migrants living in the camps have been crossing back and forth across the border to attend hearings. It’s possible that after their court appointments people could have brought the virus back from the US, where there are far more confirmed cases than in Mexico, said Maureen Meyer, director for Mexico and Migrant Rights at WOLA, a nonprofit focused on human rights in the Americas.


“It could quickly become a real crisis on the border,” she said.


Like the US government, critics have accused the Mexican government of initially taking a laissez-faire approach to the coronavirus crisis in general. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador spent last weekend, for example, defiantly hugging and kissing supporters. In Matamoros, authorities at first said the crisis “wasn’t a big deal” and mooted measures like displacing those hit by the virus to a different site, Leiner said. But they have since softened their approach and signed off on humanitarian organizations’ plans, while the head of the local health department has been in constant contact, she said.



But concerns remain that policy could quickly change. “As cases start coming up, one thing we were worried about is if we announce any suspected cases or if we notify the authorities, could that then trigger a border closure? Or violence against the camp? Or someone being detained and never seeing their family again?” Leiner asked. “If we’re further hampered by border closures or supply lines or medical personnel not being able to cross, that makes the fight ahead of us even more difficult.”


Most asylum seekers on the border are young, but their high levels of stress and poor living conditions mean the virus could take a heavy toll on them, said Oscar Misael, an anthropologist at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, a research institute studying the border area. “We’re talking about a population that is obviously at risk because they were already exposed to conditions of vulnerability—whether social, legal, or in terms of healthcare,” he said.


When Misael surveyed migrants in Reynosa and Matamoros last year, around a third said they had experienced health issues during their journey—many of which were acute respiratory infections. Leiner said most people there are malnourished and nutrient deficient.
GRM has been giving them multivitamins to boost their immune systems—one of three prongs in the strategy to tackle the virus. They have put in place whatever prevention methods are possible, such as moving tents further apart, improving ventilation, and setting up a medical hotline.


People with mild to moderate symptoms will shelter in their tents, while those severely hit will be sent to the local hospital. Once that fills up, GRM will begin treating people in a rudimentary field hospital that can take up to 20 patients. “It’s in the middle of a muddy field where there’s no electricity and no running water,” Leiner said. “We’re clearly not able to provide medical grade oxygen at the quantity where we can ventilate people—that’s just not possible.”


https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/m...141623489.html

Time for Mexico to send a convoy of buses, load them up, and send them back to Central America immediately.

Use their military aircraft to load up the women, children, and UACs.

The military in their countries can set up tents to house and feed them and send them back home, which is where they belong. They do not belong here, they do not belong in Mexico. They are their presidents responsiblity.

Stop all asylum claims, we have a massive backlog, and we have no time for this now!

All our resources, our tax dollars, need to go to helping the American people.

U.S. to rapidly turn away border-crossing migrants over coronavirus

Camilo Montoya-Galvez


CBS NewsMarch 21, 2020, 12:24 AM EDT












U.S. to rapidly turn away border-crossing migrants over coronavirus


Citing the need to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration on Friday announced it would turn away border-crossing migrants, including those seeking refuge, by invoking sweeping powers to deny entry to foreigners whom the government determines could carry a communicable disease.


U.S. officials at both land borders are being directed to rapidly process migrants who lack the authorization to enter the country and to bounce them off U.S. soil as quickly as possible starting Saturday. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said migrants would be returned to Mexico or Canada "without delay," or rapidly deported to their home countries.


Standing alongside President Trump and other top administration officials, Wolf said the stringent measures stemmed from an order by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. He said it would be "all but impossible" for his officers to determine whether migrants pose a public health risk since many of them arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without medical or travel documents.


"The CDC Director has determined that the introduction and spread of the coronavirus in the department's Border Patrol stations and detention facilities presents a serious danger to migrants, our frontline agents and officers and the American people," Wolf told reporters at Friday's White House briefing.


CDC officials did not respond to requests for comment or provide a copy of the order that gives the Department of Homeland Security the power to implement the new measures.
In addition to the restrictions for migrants, the administration also announced on Friday it would prohibit non-essential travel at the southern border under a joint agreement with the Mexican government. Like similar measures with Canada, the move does not ban commercial traffic and will not affect U.S. citizens or permanent residents.


The administration said it has the authority to enforce the new restrictions for migrants under a public health law that allows the government to turn away foreigners if the U.S. surgeon general determines they could carry a communicable disease. "This order applies to persons coming from Mexico and Canada who are seeking to enter the country illegally and who would normally be held in congregate settings like a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) station," said Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, who oversees the CDC.


At ports of entry along the borders with Canada and Mexico, CBP officers will no longer be processing migrants who are deemed "inadmissible" into the U.S., agency officials said. Asked about those who claim fear of persecution in their home countries, CBP officials said anyone whom the agency determines can't enter the U.S. because of the CDC order will be returned to the "country of last transit," meaning Mexico or Canada.


Citing the CDC order, CBP officials said they will "suspend or reduce routine queue management procedures at the limit line" across ports of entry for any migrant who appears to lack proper travel documents.


In between these border crossings, CBP agents will be "given tools" to rapidly adjudicate cases in the field after apprehending migrants and asylum-seekers. The Border Patrol agents would then decide whether to take people into custody or "expel" them to Mexico or Canada through a port of entry, CBP officials said.


Asked whether migrants at the southern border would be sent to Mexico or deported to their native countries, Wolf said some would be repatriated in "rapid fashion," while "additional populations" would be returned to Mexican territory, with that country's permission. The main objective, Wolf said, is to limit contact between agents and migrants by reducing the amount of time border crossers spend in U.S custody.


Processing for unaccompanied migrant children, who are afforded extra protections under U.S. law, will not change and CBP will continue to quickly transfer them to the Office of Refugee Resettlement within HHS.


Homeland Security officials did not answer whether any migrants who say they fear returning to their home countries will be referred to an interview with an asylum officer. It's also unclear if Mexican asylum-seekers will be quickly deported to Mexico since U.S. law generally prohibits officials from returning migrants to places where their "life or freedom would be threatened."


The measures announced on Friday elicited withering criticism from human rights groups and immigrant advocates, who said border officials could be violating U.S. asylum law, as well as America's obligations under intentional refugee treaties if they moved forward with the plans.


"Even before coronavirus came along, we've seen the administration take steps to make it virtually impossible for anyone to seek asylum at the southern border," Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, told CBS News. "It comes at no surprise that we heard rumblings about turning away asylum-seekers almost immediately after this crisis began."


Over the past two years, the administration has instituted a series of policies that have severely restricted access to humanitarian protections at the southern border. They include a policy that has required more than 60,000 Latin American migrants to wait in Mexico as their asylum cases are processed, a restriction that renders most non-Mexicans ineligible for asylum and more recently, bilateral agreements that allow the U.S. to re-route asylum-seeking migrants to countries in Central America, even if they don't have any connections to those countries.


The administration has defended the policies as necessary tools to curb irregular migration and to deter "fraudulent" asylum claims. But advocates say the measures have decimated America's asylum system and eroded the country's symbolism as a beacon of safe haven for those fleeing persecution.


Reichlin-Melnick said the administration is essentially exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to fulfill its restrictive immigration agenda. Instead of turning people away, he said officials should repurpose the billions of dollars being spent on constructing border barriers to create a safer way to process migrants.


During the White House briefing, the president said the new restrictions could help address "mass uncontrolled" migration. After reaching a 13-year high in May 2019, apprehensions along the southwest border dropped for eight consecutive months, rising only slightly in February, according to government data.


"We should be especially wary of any efforts targeted at asylum-seekers during a moment of crisis," Reichlin-Melnick said.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-rapidly...124736883.html

If they come through Canada or Mexico..."bounce" them back there over the FIRST border they illegally crossed.


SEND THOSE UACs OVER INTO THE CARE AND CUSTODY OF THEIR COUNTRY. THEY ARE NOT OURS TO KEEP OR DETAIN. FAST TRACK THEM BACK HOME!


Countries around the world need to stop them, turn them around, and stop letting them into YOUR country because you will get them back! You will not dump these migrants on us any longer.

The U.S. taxpayers are not their travel agent, and we should not by paying for these flights back home.

Canada and Mexico can direct them to their Embassy or Consulate to assist them with their travel arrangements and their Embassy can pay these expenses.


This has got to stop.


Mexico needs to stop allowing them to pass through Mexico by the hundreds of thousands, now the joke is on you, so knock it off.


Mexico does not want them either. How does it feel in your country? Not so good. We do not like it either.