News 11 Exclusive: Surrendering for Asylum

Illegal border crossings, migrant caravans, detention centers, and asylum are all words that we hear every day when it comes to immigration. The question is what do these words mean for those affected most?

The stories of undocumented immigrants start almost 3,000 miles away in Central America as they begin their journey to eventually surrender for asylum.

The Morelos Dam is an international boundary near the city of Yuma that separates the United States from Mexico. It’s where the Colorado River nears its end before flowing into Mexico and for thousands of undocumented immigrants, it’s the first chapter of their journey into the country.

Many of them said they’re fleeing poverty, lack of resources, and even violence in their home countries.

“There’s no way of living over there, one day everything could be okay and the next, someone in your family gets brutally murdered,” said Susely Idia, a Guatemalan mother.

Honduras is the murder capital of the world with a homicide rate of 187 deaths per every 100,000 inhabitants in 2013. This was driven by a surge in gangs and drug-trafficking violence, according to Pew Research.

The Department of Homeland Security points to poverty as the other factor pushing people north. Central American countries are among the poorest nations in Latin America with Guatemala having 30 percent, Honduras having 26 percent, and El Salvador having 17 percent of its people living on what’s the equivalent of less than $2 a day. This explains the shifts of demographics agents at the Yuma Sector are now seeing.

“The demographics have shifted. Back then, we use to only get Mexican nationals and now we’re getting those from Central America. We can’t repatriate them back to Mexico. That process is no longer because they are from that northern triangle,” said Vincent Dulesky, a Border Patrol agent.

Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador are known as the northern triangle of Central America. All these countries have experienced a dramatic climb in organized crime by gangs known as Mara Salvatrucha known as MS-13.

These shifts of demographics are what agents at the Yuma Sector are seeing.

It’s a process that takes several hours from the moment they’re detained to the moment these asylum seekers board Department of Homeland Security buses.

“After they have been written up by our agents, they will then be transported to our Border Patrol station where the medical staff makes an initial evaluation. Ask them questions, if they need to go to the hospital and once cleared if we can transfer them to ice custody we will,” said Jose Garibay, a Border Patrol agent.

During an overnight ride-along with agents, we came across three different groups, all from Central America. The first group is of about 25 undocumented immigrants, with the majority were children.

“it’s a non-stop flow of illegal crossings that we’re seeing out here in our sector and due to the laws we have and the exploitation that these smugglers are using, it’s not gonna end anytime soon,” Garibay said.

Others in the group left loved ones back home with one goal in mind to work and raise money.

“We left a lot of our family back home, my wife, my father, my mother and I just came with my son to get to the united states it was not an easy decision but it was one we needed to make,” said Jose Gomez, a Guatemalan migrant.

Gomez’s case was one News 11 hadn’t seen before and one agents on the ground are not prepared for: Different dialects from various countries.

“We do get people from the indigenous area and it’s hard to communicate. Fortunately, we do have those services to help us get that translation,” Agent Dulesky said.

During my interview with Gomez, communication was a bit difficult.

“I don’t know how to communicate. Because I don’t speak the language that well,” Gomez said.

Agents said the agency provides services for these specific cases through contractors.

“Fortunately, we do have services that we have access to that we can call and get that translation when we need it in whatever language it may be,” Agent Dulesky said.

In that same group lies another case that we haven’t seen.

Carolina Castillo is an unaccompanied 15-year-old girl from Ecuador and who has one goal in mind. Getting to New Jersey to reunite with her mother.

“I came with my brother, my cousin, and someone that we met along the way. I’m 15-years-old, my brother is 13, my cousin is 10-years-old,” Castillo said.

Castillo and her brother have been without their mother for 10 years when she decided to come to the United States for work.

In tears, she remembers their last conversation before leaving the only place she knows.

“I spoke with my mother the day I left Ecuador. She was so happy and saying that we will finally reunite soon,” Castillo said.

But like several of the unaccompanied children who make the dangerous trek north, they want to live what they call the ‘American dream’.

“I want to get a title, I was to study and start a career, I just want a life that is stolen from us back in Ecuador,” Castillo added.

With no end in sight as to how long this border crisis will continue along the southern border, a solution is a multi-pronged approach, this is according to Border Patrol.

“For us, we need that updated infrastructure of which we’re getting 26-miles of new 30 ft baller wall, additional technology, additional manpower, and fix the loopholes in the immigration system,” Garibay said.

Last year asylum seekers accounted for about half of all new immigration cases coming in at almost 160,000, according to the New York Times.

Further pending immigration cases have almost doubled since President Donald Trump took office prolonging the time it takes asylum seekers to find out if they’ve been granted asylum.

In 2018, only 21 percent of those seeking asylum were granted with their request. 41 percent were denied. The rest of the cases were closed for other reasons.