Psychologists Without Borders grant the first step to request asylum

Among countless tents in the La Esperanza camp, where some two thousand migrants have been waiting for months for the possibility of crossing the border in search of asylum, a team of psychologists occasionally visit the place in search of the most vulnerable cases .

“Sometimes we find women with high-risk pregnancies, or who have a few weeks to give birth, or people, for example, with a cancerous tumor, who are priority cases to request asylum due to their high vulnerability, ”the coordinator of Psychologists Without Borders, Luis Guillermo Gómez Rosales, told Real America News.

They also talk with people who survived attacks, with whom they had to flee and at the border they found abuse and mistreatment, some with notable emotional trauma for which they have had to live and that forces them to seek asylum.

“We take the first step – identify high vulnerability – but get families to cross over to ask for asylum and taking your process within the United States would not be possible if it weren’t for a whole team of people and organizations ”, said the psychologist.

The most vulnerable cases, which Psychologists Without Borders gather in direct dialogue between the camp migrant, then go to health personnel and immigration lawyers who give form to asylum applications.

The same psychologists set up a mobile awning with tables and chairs, where lawyers, translators and volunteers from organizations interview the migrants and compose the files.

Then those files go to the American Civil Liberties Union (Aclu) in San Diego, which presents formally argued petitions to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which provides dates and times for families and Migrants present themselves at the pedestrian gate of San Ysidro.

“All the work begins with the interviews of the families with the psychologists,” said the immigration lawyer Dulce García. .

“They find reasons that are not very obvious or visible to show that they are cases of high vulnerability, that are a priority for the United States government to allow them to cross the border and attend them while their asylum application proceeds, “said the lawyer.

Psychologists only identify themselves with a light beige vest with letters embroidered with lilac thread on the back,” Psychologists Without Borders BC ”, for Baja California, although in reality they are national representatives.

They are all professionals who make a living from their respective jobs but join as volunteers to help migrants in the camp .

They also do a job of controlling incidents when people could lose their temper. awaited by waiting to request asylum in the United States.

“They are not even in the camp, they have just arrived and have already passed because they are pregnant and we have endured here for months and they happen to us ”, protested a mother of a family a few days ago, while waiting behind a cordoned off, an opportunity to present her case to the lawyers.

When the situation was at risk of revolted, the psychologist Luis Gómez intervened with amazing patience. “Let’s see, love … we agreed that we are going to attend to the most vulnerable cases first, right?”, He said to the woman and took the conversation to a conciliatory tone, rather than protest.

Robert Vivar, a leader of deported veterans who collaborates as a volunteer in the team that prepares the asylum petition files in the camp, explained to Real America News that the work of psychologists is fundamental.

“It is true that all the collaborations in favor of families seeking asylum are very important, but I would say that the work of fellow psychologists is exceptional” because the whole process begins with them and they are the ones who They also have an order in the consultations with the lawyers.

The coordinator of the psychologists, Luis Gómez, said for his part that all the participants form “a platform in which we offer families and migrants a more comprehensive, psychological, medical and legal service. ”

He explained that while it is not for migrants to continue their asylum process within the United States, the team collaborates to remove the most vulnerable and urgent cases among migrants from high-risk circumstances.

The The group began when the ACLU sued the Biden administration to reopen the asylum process that Donald Trump canceled and to date has helped cross a few 125 cases , most of them families and some of them up to eight members.