Migrants wait apprehensively at Mexican border, in Arizona for immigration court dates
Marisol Sánchez Hernandez, 22, is stranded in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, alongside her husband and 6-year-old and 6-month-old daughters. She is awaiting the court date that would grant her family entry into the U.S.
Sánchez said she and her family have been living in the border city of Nogales for three months after fleeing from the Mexican state of Guerrero in an effort to escape cartel violence.
Although Nogales is over 1,000 miles away from Guerrero, the challenges Sánchez and her family face are far from over. While waiting to cross into the United States, they are staying together in a room of no more than 84 square feet. They pay $160 a month and that doesn’t include heat or proper ventilation, a harsh reality when evening temperatures in Nogales have dropped below 30 degrees during their stay.
“We bundle ourselves best we can with blankets,” she explained when asked about how they endured the winter nights. She also said they rely on each other for warmth.
Sánchez said these challenges are better than the ones they left behind in Guerrero.
“The cartels just threatened us ... because my husband didn’t want to join them,” said Sánchez, speaking in her native Spanish.
Sánchez’s family is not alone; they are among thousands who have made the journey to Nogales in hopes of seeking asylum in the U.S.
The Tucson Sector, spanning 262 miles from the New Mexico state line to the Yuma County line, has seen a dramatic rise in family migration. That shift has led to challenges for both asylum seekers who risk being taken advantage of by “coyotes,” who illegally smuggle immigrants across the border, and for U.S. Border Patrol agents who lack the resources needed to deal with the increased migration.
According to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, encounters reported by Customs and Border Protection in the Tucson Sector increased by more than 100,000 from fiscal year 2022 to 2023. The same report also noted that of the more than 400,000 encounters within the Tucson Sector in fiscal year 2023, 30% were family units.
Ariel Ruiz Soto, the Migration Policy Institute senior policy analyst who authored the report, explained that this increase in families crossing at the Tucson Sector is likely due to knowledge of where Border Patrol is understaffed and lacking resources.
“The reason different cartel groups and coyotes use sectors with less capacity is that they understand that by targeting people from these sectors, more individuals can enter because there is insufficient capacity to process them quickly or because those sectors lack the ability to deport individuals arriving from certain countries,” Ruiz Soto said.
Ruiz Soto also said the lack of resources means many families, instead of being processed at the port of entry, are released to enter the country with an order to appear in immigration court. In reality, many of these families will be denied asylum once they get to the U.S. and will be deported.
Arturo Garino, former mayor of Nogales, Arizona, attested to the harsh realities that await families once they get to their court hearing.
“If those people get there on their court day, it’s possible that the judges will tell them we’re not going to grant you asylum and you’ll have to go back,” Garino said. “The majority of people seeking asylum have their cases rejected.”
Of the 634,221 asylum cases filed since 2001 in the U.S., 56% of them were denied, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Monte Vista Baptist Church in Phoenix doubles as a safe haven for migrants awaiting asylum. The church provides shelter, food and clothing in an effort to ease the burden migrants face.
Pastor Angel Campos said ICE delivers up to 200 people a day, Mondays through Thursdays, to the church. Campos said the most important thing they offer to migrant families is healing.
“An element that churches have that regular help centers don’t have is spiritual help,” Campos said. “When they arrive, the food helps when they are hungry, and the clothes also help. Showering helps them, but we help them with their soul. We assist them with their soul, something that does save you.”
Campos said he emphasizes love and care to help them heal and feel safe.
“When you treat them with love, you are already helping them to heal, so when people come here, the first thing we say to them in all languages is, ‘Welcome, welcome, welcome to the United States.’”
Many of the migrants that arrive at the church are escaping violence, and the church is their first sense of safety, Campos said.
“Almost everyone who has passed through Mexico has struggled a lot. It’s the violence; even though they haven’t been kidnapped, there’s the danger of kidnapping and the threat of being sexually abused,” Campos said. “Because even though it hasn’t happened to them, the risk is imminent.”
