You cannot think of a more American place to start life in this country: the parking lot of a shopping center, in front of a hamburger joint.
It is there that the government of Last February, the United States began to leave groups of migrants who had crossed the border without documents from Mexico to the border town of Yuma, in the desert Arizona.
As soon as they crossed, these migrants They had turned them over to the Border Patrol, then they had been processed and now, in that parking lot, they were left to their own devices.
The majority without knowing that they were in that community, much more used to receiving lettuce growers immigrants than asylum seekers.
Without a bus station, or shelter and an airport that only has flights to two cities, in the locality of less than 100. 000 inhabitants the migrants were adrift.
Until the residents themselves organized.
“We are on the front line”
Every morning, Fernando “Fernie” Quiroz receives a call from the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP , for its acronym in English), in which they indicate the number of migrants that they will release that day.
The native of Yuma from 48 years is a volunteer wrestling teacher at the local secondary school and now, too, is dedicated to coordinating the reception of migrants once they are out of custody.
Son of Mexican immigrants, Quiroz and another group of locals have taken responsibility for do coronavirus tests on newcomers , because the government does not provide them .
They are also in charge of managing buses that transport them to hostels in other cities on a daily basis.
Much of the work is done from donations and expenses that they will later try to collect from the Biden administration.
“Federal agencies are at full capacity. Sometimes the numbers (of migrants) go up unexpectedly, ”says Quiroz from his operations center, a corner of his living room with a small desk. In the background, photos of his daughter and a poster of the agricultural unionist Dolores Huerta.
Indeed, with the arrival of Democrat Joe Biden to the presidency last January, the number of border crossings has exponentially increased and, according to its own government, is on track to reach records not seen in years.
It is obvious here.
The Yuma border sector, which encompasses more than 200 kilometers of desert terrain, is one of those that has seen a greater increase (more than 200%) at the crossings during the month of March, compared to the same period of 2020.
During the month of April, 14. 000 migrants were intercepted in the sector, from According to preliminary data obtained by the AP agency.
Although the vast majority of intercepted migrants are expelled back to Mexico with the argument of the pandemic, some are admitted.
Vincent Dulesky, CBP spokesman in Yuma, did not specify what criteria are used to allow who can remain in this territory and who cannot, but indicated that Mexico “determines who can be returned ”to that country.
Even so, authorities have been overwhelmed , not only in Yuma, but in similar locations along the southern border.
Offices to process migrants are not enough and in the case of Yuma, in recent days a temporary infrastructure was set up that can accommodate up to 250 migrants for a legal limit of 72 hours.
Dulesky clarified that the agency does not administer covid tests – 15, but if they suspect that a person is sick with the virus, “we take them to the hospital immediately and there they do a test”.
There are so many children and babies who arrive with their parents that some rooms in the space have toys. The image completely collides with the cold environment, marked by the constant roar of the air conditioning throughout the facility.
The first call
“Right now when they get off, is when they will be free . For tomorrow afternoon you are with your family, ok? “, Says the wrestling teacher and coordinator, Quiroz, aboard a Border Patrol bus that brings a group of some – .
A applause that, more than euphoria, what it transmits is relief.
In the group there are Brazilians, Ecuadorians, Romanians, Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans. There are also people with disabilities, pregnant women and a baby of just two months.
Most crossed from Mexico after walking in the desert for hours and then they spent several nights in US detention.
The test site is two tents set up in a parking lot under the biting Arizona sun. But it represents much more for those who arrive.
It is here that migrants have access to a Wi-Fi network for the first time to call their relatives.
Those who arrive without a cell phone ask to borrow volunteers.
“Where are we?” , asks Rosario Zabala, a Venezuelan from 65 years that she traveled with her husband Eddie, who is diabetic and suffered a faint on the way.
“We’re here dad, we’re in Yuma,” he tells his son over the phone.
Zabala emphasizes that he searched for all the Possible legal mechanisms to reunite with his only son in the United States, but he was denied a visa and had no option to request a residence.
At his home in the state Zulia, in western Venezuela, the couple say that they lived without access to basic services, such as water and gas and in a climate of insecurity.
“We were all crippled because we did everything on foot, there is no transportation. Now with the covid, less “, he explains.
” I knew that coming like this is not a crime , one has the right to request this protection here . So we did that ”, she adds.
The worst was over, insisted the woman, who every so often asked where she could buy new shoes because she didn’t want“ her son to see her like that ”.
The procedure if any of the migrants tests positive is to transport them to a hotel in Yuma where they will be examined every day until they obtain a negative, explains Amanda Aguirre, president of the Regional Center for Border Health, where COVID tests are administered to migrants.
The center also hired buses that transport migrants to locations in Arizona and California, where there are shelters.
“It is the humanitarian thing to do. But of course this generates an expense that we are assuming and we hope that the federal government will reimburse us ”, he says.
The US government does not provide a temporary housing system for these people, so many depend on the support of family members already established in the country.
In the shelters there are beds and dining rooms, and they also help them to book air tickets to travel to their final destinations.
It is the case of Adrián and Verónica Meza , a couple of Nicaraguan Christian pastors who left their country with their 5 and 11 years.
From a shelter in Mecca, California, the family says that did not tell anyone who would leave the country, except for Adrián’s sister, who would receive them in Florida.
“We left because of the political situation that is happening in our country. If you speak badly, you get imprisoned, they mark your house. There is a phrase that they put: ‘lead, lead’ ”, Adrián explains.
It costs this man from 45 years lose the smile, But remembering part of the journey makes him break down.
“We were on a farm in the mountains and I picked up some boards and put some bags to sleep on Giovanni (his son). And when I saw him lying there, on the ground, I only asked God for help. It hurt me a lot, because you want the best for your children. ”
Verónica is the first from her family’s side to leave Nicaragua, and just thinking about it moves her to tears .
“I told the Lord to give me the opportunity one day to come to this country, because there is a future here,” he says.
They left with their possessions most precious, including a Bible and a photo of the family.
Now a new and important document is added: the one that gave them the US authorities, which will allow them to travel within the country and contains information about e his next presentation hearing to defend his case in Florida.
In the shelter, the same migrants who hours before were tense and exhausted are finally allowed to relax.
They take the opportunity to share a hot meal and exchange contacts. After having lived the intense experience together, many may not see each other again.
The wall that is no longer
Although the vast majority of migrants released in Yuma do not stay there , the local authorities warn of the problem posed by their passage.
Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot drives his truck pick up kilometers from the fence that divides Arizona from Mexico, until it reaches a point where there are no more barriers and you can see construction material and steel on the ground.
“All this was left here abandoned , obviously after the president (Biden) ordered the construction to stop. So now they have left us with these gaps along international boundaries, ”he says.
After a few minutes, at least a dozen migrants are observed crossing these spaces, most with babies and children.
“The word has spread” , says Wilmot, referring to Biden’s message about his government being more open with migration.
“The cartels will continue to press their agenda, and it affects us as a community that the Border Patrol is entangled in this humanitarian issue instead of exercising its surveillance work,” he warns.
Although he claims to understand the reasons that drive migrants to travel like this, he questions that the government does not have the capacity to handle it and that, arrivals extreme summer temperatures, die more in the desert.
For him, a charismatic man who traveled to El Salvador a few years ago because he wanted to see “what the situation was like” there, there is no solution easy.
“It is not necessarily bad people who are coming. But there are bad people and those are the ones that interest me ”.
Others, such as the Mayor of Yuma, Douglas Nicholls, they fear that NGOs and volunteer networks will outnumber themselves.
“They are helping with the migrant crisis, and that is outside of their regular operations. I am concerned that they exceed their capabilities and end up releasing people directly into the streets , ”he says.
Fernando Quiroz, the wrestling teacher who dedicates himself full time to helping migrants, also acknowledges his fear that the increase in the arrivals undermine the aid network they provide for now. “We are on the front line and people will continue to come,” he warns. For the Mezas, one of the families who received his help, now their greatest concern is far from Yuma: they have than boarding a plane for the first time, and that causes them some nerve.
“I don’t know what I’ll feel,” says the mother of the family, Verónica, between nervousness and enthusiasm.
But the youngest sees it differently. With a shy voice and when asked what he will do when he is on the plane, he does not doubt: “I’m going to fly like a bird.”
With landing in Florida comes the family embrace, home.
The family has a long process with their asylum application, which will ultimately define their legal stay in the country.
Meanwhile, they have already registered to children at school.
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