Those Desperate To Get into America Don’t See Quarantine as a Barrier

The Democrats are hoping to win over the Spanish-speaking electorate by raising the migration issue.

Panic reports from the medical fronts in both the United States and its neighbor Mexico have, for some reason, marginalized the problem of mass migration across the border between the two countries. It’s been a long time since we heard anything about the caravans of people desperate to get into “prosperous America;” it’s nice and quiet on the Rio Grande, and representatives from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have pointed out that the number of people trying to cross the border illegally is now close to zero.

But how long will this relatively dry migration spell last? In mid-March the U.S., first partially, and then completely, closed its land border with Mexico. Up until this point, several thousands of migrants, mainly from the Central American countries, Cuba and Haiti, were managing to make it across this border on a daily basis in search of a better life. ICE agents were rounding the trespassers up in places, but many managed to head north from the border, and, as a result, scattered throughout the territories of other American states.

Before the border was closed from the American side, Mexico, under strong pressure from the White House, closed its border with Guatemala to migrants. Obviously fearful of the serious economic repercussions of scaling down trade with the U.S. and increased tariffs on imported Mexican fruit and vegetables, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised not to let caravans of migrants cross the border, the sizes of which totaled around one million people at the start of the year.

At that time, around 70,000 illegal migrants had accumulated at the U.S. border and the Mexican government had to quickly build several temporary camps at its own expense to accommodate them. In addition, dozens of American journalists, right on cue, were visiting these camps every day and reporting to the whole country about the horrific conditions that these unfortunate people were being forced to live in. Their only desire was to make it to “free America.” And President Donald Trump was personally not letting them in.

Democratic members of Congress also visited these camps on a regular basis, among whom Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the sassy young lady of Ecuadorian heritage from New York who became popular in her district back during Bernie Sanders’ last attempt to become the Democratic presidential candidate, particularly stood out. She personally scolded ICE and border patrol agents, accusing them of treating the poor and unfortunate undocumented migrants from El Salvador and Honduras without mercy. And she promised them that as soon as Sanders gets into the White House, not only would they all be let into the United States, but they would also receive the same rights here in terms of work, and subsequently, citizenship.

However, Sanders dropped out of the presidential race and, due to the contagious coronavirus, the border with Mexico was closed. Only trucks carrying agricultural products from Mexico are allowed to cross the border now, and all remaining movement across the border — even that of the young children who live on one side of the border (Mexico) but go to school on the other (America) — has been completely stopped. The members of multiple American-Mexican families who have been separated not just by the high fences, but also by the vast array of anti-coronavirus medical restrictions, also haven’t seen each other for over two months.

But whoever thinks that the problem of illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S. has just gone away is seriously mistaken. Take the so-called coyotes, for instance, the middlemen who guide the illegal migrants across the border, whose income has actually fallen by 90%. The guaranteed $6,000-8,000 for each person, which they were receiving up until not that long ago, is now impossible to earn. However, they have already found a way out.

According to the coyotes, who quite often give interviews on American and Mexican TV while covering their faces, queues of 200-300 people who are desperate to get into the U.S. “as soon as the situation normalizes” have already formed. Indeed, the number of those wanting to become “new Americans” has significantly increased among Cubans, Ecuadorians, citizens of Haiti, and of the Dominican Republic. Only now you need to pay these coyotes $3,000-4,000 more per person for the same service, “for the virus trouble.”

In those migration camps which are still being maintained on Mexican territory, no more than 10% of the inhabitants want to remain in the country. Due to quarantine measures and border closures, those very same Hondurans and Guatemalans cannot return home. And those fleeing from El Salvador can expect a month-long quarantine and the strict control of subjects with possible connections to the criminal world should they return to their homeland (they can be deported from U.S. territory only by U.S. immigration authorities).

As a result, the migrants who have accumulated in the Mexican camps have already come to an agreement with the coyotes to try and get through the closed border and onto American territory. Moreover, the suggestion from Democratic members of Congress that the next $3 trillion aid package should include undocumented immigrants who are working and paying taxes in America, has already been advertised among the migrants currently waiting in Mexico.

And even though the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by the Republicans, certainly won’t pass such a bill, crowds of potential immigrants from Central America believe in the idea that if they can make it across the border right now, the American government will definitely help them. The supporters of the Democratic Party are also counting on something similar happening, since they see the issue of showing “empathy” toward the destitute and unhappy migrants, who are stranded far from their homeland, as a possibility to win the Spanish-speaking electorate over to their side. And this is an important helping hand for them in the run-up to the looming presidential elections.