Border Dispatch, Part I: ‘Everyone Who Arrives Here Has Paid’
BY: JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON
JUNE 16, 2022
Senda de Vida
In the dangerous and volatile border towns of northern Mexico, a black market for illegal immigration is exploding.
Author John Daniel Davidson profile
JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON
REYNOSA, Mexico — We met Osniel at Senda de Vida, a massive migrant shelter situated on the south bank of the Rio Grande across from McAllen, Texas. The slender 23-year-old Cuban didn’t give us his last name, but did tell us he’d paid a coyote, or smuggler, $11,000 to leave his home country, transit through Central America and Mexico, and cross the border into the United States — twice.
Both times he crossed, though, he’d been arrested by Border Patrol and quickly sent back to Mexico under Title 42, the pandemic health order that allows U.S. authorities to expel illegal immigrants quickly, with minimal processing. When Osniel left Cuba in early April, Title 42 didn’t apply to Cubans. But that changed while he was en route.
On April 27, the Biden administration cut a deal with Mexico to begin expelling up to 100 Cubans and 20 Nicaraguans a day from three border facilities. For Osniel, it was just bad timing — he crossed the river on April 29.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/16/border-dispatch-part-i-everyone-who-arrives-here-has-paid/
