NEW YORK (AP) – When Wilfredo Molina arrived in the US from his native Venezuela, he told border agents he wanted to go to Miami but had no address. They sent him to what he thought was a shelter in downtown Manhattan, but it turned out to be a gray office building.
“It was a fake building. I didn’t understand what it was,” he said.
Molina was one of 13 migrants who recently arrived in the US who agreed to share with The Associated Press documents they received when they were released from US custody while seeking asylum after crossing the border into Mexico. The AP found that most had no idea where they were going — and neither did the people at the addresses listed on their paperwork.
Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the border patrol, did not respond to repeated questions about families and individuals interviewed and the addresses assigned to them.
But the snafus suggest a pattern of border patrol officers, particularly in Texas, who send migrants without friends or family in the United States to offices that get no notice. The places often have no space to accommodate migrants. But because those addresses are on migrants’ papers, important messages can be sent later.
“We believe Border Patrol is trying to demonstrate the chaos they are experiencing at the border with inland cities,” said Denise Chang, executive director of the Colorado Housing Asylum Network. “We just need to coordinate so we can receive people properly.”
Addresses on documents shown to AP included administrative offices of Catholic charities in New York and San Antonio; a church in El Paso, Texas; a private residence in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts; and a group that operates homeless shelters in Salt Lake City.
A Venezuelan family who came to the American Red Cross administrative offices in Denver was referred to multiple shelters before anyone volunteered to take them in. Migrants who came to New York ended up in shelters, hotels or temporary apartments that the city helped them find and pay for.
A wave of migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest level ever in a fiscal year. In the 12-month period ending September 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, a 37% increase from 1.73 million the year before and more than 2 million times for the first time.
The year-end numbers reflect deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the relative strength of the US economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.
Many are immediately deported under the Asylum Restrictions, a public health ordinance known as Title 42, which deprives people of the opportunity to seek asylum on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
But others — including people from Cuba and Nicaragua, with whom the US has tense relations — are being released with an appeal to appear in immigration court or under humanitarian parole. Those migrants have to tell officers where they will live, but many are unable to provide an address.
“It almost seems like border officials just look up every nonprofit address they can or just look up a name they can and just write that down without ever really checking to see if that person has mentioned it, if there are beds or shelter on it. that location, or even if this is a location that can provide legal assistance,” said Lauren Wyatt, an attorney at Catholic Charities of New York. “So it’s clear that this isn’t the most effective way to do this.”
Most of the migrants interviewed in New York had jumped on taxpayer-funded buses that regularly send Texas and the city of El Paso to the northeastern city.
Republican governments. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona have also sent migrants released at the border to Democratic strongholds including Chicago, Washington, DC and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. They have been criticized for failing to notify local officials of plans. Republicans say they are highlighting issues with President Joe Biden’s immigration policy.
The Biden administration recently agreed to take up to 24,000 Venezuelans at US airports if they apply for asylum online from financial sponsors, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since the Russian invasion. Mexico has said it will take back Venezuelans who cross the border into the US and are deported under Title 42 authority.
Yeysy Hernández, a Venezuelan who reached New York after taking one of El Paso’s buses, says the address in her documents is for a church in El Paso that was not expecting migrants and where she only slept one night. Now she is concerned that immigration messages may be sent there.
Hundreds of immigrants showed up at one of the Catholic Charities of New York offices with documents showing the address. Wyatt said the group was complaining and that the government promised to end the practice by August 1 — something that “obviously hasn’t happened.”
The group has also received more than 300 notices to appear in immigration court for people unfamiliar with the organization, Wyatt said. It has also received deportation orders for migrants who failed to appear in court because their notices were sent to Catholic charities’ addresses.
Victor Quijada traveled to Denver with relatives last month after border agents sent the Venezuelan family to an American Red Cross office building. Once there, they were referred to a city shelter that also rejected them. They eventually found a shelter where they were taken care of for a few days, but they felt unsafe.
“It was tough what we had to go through; from the things we had to eat to being out on the street — an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Quijada said.
Chang, of the Colorado Housing Asylum Network, eventually took the family in and her organization helped them rent an apartment. She said she knows several migrants who have been assigned to addresses of groups that cannot help them.
“The five families I’ve worked with for the past three months were all five picked up from the street, literally sitting on the curb with children,” she said.
The building in downtown Manhattan that Molina moved to is an International Rescue Committee’s refugee resettlement office, but it only offers limited services to asylum seekers there, said Stanford Prescott, a spokesman for the group.
Only one of the IRC’s US offices – in Phoenix – operates a reception center for asylum seekers, and most stay for less than 48 hours. Yet the offices in Dallas and Atlanta are also listed on migrant documents.
“We are deeply concerned that misreporting these addresses could lead to complications for asylum seekers pursuing legal proceedings to seek safety in the US,” Prescott said.
