B Stands for Border Experience

Good afternoon,

The Biden administration recently instituted changes to Title 42, the pandemic-era CDC health rule that immediately expels most migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Now in addition to unaccompanied migrant children, up to 7,750 asylum seekers can be processed into the U.S. each month. These migrants must meet vulnerability criteria determined by local advocacy groups and legal service providers.

As an Arizonan, I try to keep up on what’s happening at our border with Sonora. Last week, I visited the border at Nogales to see firsthand the great work local NGOs are doing to support arriving migrants (you can see more pictures here). Along with a few other Phoenix-area faith leaders and Sheriff David Hathaway of Santa Cruz County, AZ, I crossed into Sonora to experience the beautiful and critical work of the Kino Border Initiative. Led by Executive Director Joanna Williams, KBI serves migrants on both sides of the border dividing the city of Nogales, providing food, shelter and other crucial care to both deportees and asylum seekers. We had the opportunity to hear migrants’ stories and serve them lunch. KBI is helping to ensure that migrants have a chance at flourishing in the United States. 

From Nogales, we headed to the Casa Alitas welcome center in Tucson, run by Catholic Charities of Southern Arizona. This center serves migrants who have been granted entry into the U.S. to have their asylum cases heard by an immigration judge. Casa Alitas is a collaboration with Pima County (which has converted some of its juvenile detention facilities) to house migrant families for very short-term stays and help them prepare for the next steps of their journey. The demeanor of migrants in Casa Alitas was tangibly more hopeful than those we encountered at KBI. Nogales, Sonora is less than an hour from Tucson, but for migrants stuck south of the border the distance seems incalculable.

With summer approaching and conditions in the desert becoming deadlier, it is predicted that the number of migrants arriving at the border will decrease. But the humanitarian crisis at the border will continue until long term and sustainable immigration reform becomes a reality. Congress must find bipartisan solutions to create a modernized immigration system that addresses current immigration needs and trends both at the border and throughout the U.S.

As long as I have the privilege to continue advocating for and with immigrants, the people and stories I engage at the border and in my community will be my motivation to keep moving forward!

Staying hopeful,

Adam

Adam Estle
Vice President of Field and Constituencies
National Immigration Forum 

NEWS CLIPS TO NOTE:

WASHINGTON POST: Biden administration reins in street-level enforcement by ICE as officials try to refocus agency mission

CBS NEWS: Lawmakers urge speeding up special visas for Afghans who aided U.S. troops

AXIOS: How immigration can power the future of America's heartland

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Watchdog: US forced deported parents to leave kids behind