Groups stepping in along border as more families seek asylum in U.S.

NOGALES, Sonora — Marisol Sánchez Hernandez, 22, is stranded in Nogales, Sonora, alongside her husband and 6-year-old and 6-month-old daughters. She is awaiting the court date that would grant her family entry into the U.S.

Sánchez said she and her family have been living in the border city of Nogales for three months after fleeing from the Mexican state of Guerrero in an effort to escape cartel violence.

Although Nogales is more than 1,000 miles away from Guerrero, the challenges Sánchez and her family face are far from over. While waiting to cross into the United States, they are staying together in a room of no more than 84 square feet. They pay $160 a month and that doesn’t include heat or proper ventilation, a harsh reality when evening temperatures in Nogales have dropped below 30 degrees during their stay.

“We bundle ourselves best we can with blankets,” she explained when asked about how they endured the winter nights. She also said they rely on each other for warmth.

Still Sánchez said these challenges are better than the ones they left behind in Guerrero.

“The cartels just threatened us, nothing more because my husband didn’t want to join them,” said Sánchez, speaking in her native Spanish.

Sánchez’s family is not alone; they are one of thousands who have made the journey to Nogales in hopes of seeking asylum in the United States.

The Tucson sector of the border has seen a dramatic rise in family migration. That shift has led to challenges for both asylum seekers who risk being taken advantage of by “coyotes,” who illegally smuggle immigrants across the border, and for U.S. Border Patrol agents who lack the resources needed to deal with the increased migration.

The Tucson sector of the Arizona-Mexico border, spanning 262 miles from the New Mexico state line to the Yuma County line. According to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, encounters reported by Customs and Border Protection in the Tucson sector increased by more than 100,000 from fiscal year 2022 to 2023. The same report also noted of the more than 400,000 encounters within the Tucson sector in fiscal year 2023, 30% were family units.

Pastor Ángel Campos talks about Monte Vista Baptist Church’s efforts to help migrants awaiting asylum in the U.S., by providing them shelter, food …

Migration Policy Institute Senior Policy Analyst Ariel Ruiz Soto, who authored the report, explained this increase in families crossing at the Tucson sector is likely because of the Mexican cartel’s knowledge of where Border Patrol is understaffed and lacking resources.

“The reason different cartel groups and coyotes use sectors with less capacity is that they understand that by targeting people from these sectors, more individuals can enter because there is insufficient capacity to process them quickly or because those sectors lack the ability to deport individuals arriving from certain countries,” Ruiz Soto said.

Ruiz Soto also said the lack of resources means many families, instead of being processed at the port of entry, are released to enter the country with an order to appear in immigration court. But this isn’t the answer to their prayers because in reality many of these families will be denied asylum once they get to the U.S. and will be deported.

Arturo Garino, former mayor of Nogales, Arizona, just across the border, attested to the harsh realities that await families once they get to their long-awaited court hearing in the U.S.

“If those people get there on their court day, it’s possible that the judges will tell them we’re not going to grant you asylum and you’ll have to go back,” Garino said. “The majority of people seeking asylum have their cases rejected.”

Of the 634,221 asylum cases filed since 2001 in the U.S., 56% were denied, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Not only do families run the risk of being denied asylum once they get into the U.S., but they also face the challenge of navigating a new country without citizenship as they wait. Because of the challenges, many migrants turn to an empathetic community to lend a helping hand.

Monte Vista Baptist Church in Phoenix doubles as a safe haven for migrants awaiting asylum. The church provides shelter, food and clothing in an effort to ease the heavy burden migrants face.

Pastor Angel Campos said Immigration and Customs Enforcement delivers migrants to the church Monday through Thursday every week. Campos notes they can receive up to 200 people each day.

According to Campos the most important thing the church offers migrant families is healing.

“An element that churches have that regular help centers don’t have is spiritual help,” Campos said. “When they arrive, the food helps when they are hungry, and the clothes also help. Showering helps them, but we help them with their soul. We assist them with their soul, something that does save you.”

A group of migrants prays in Monte Vista Baptist Church in Phoenix on Feb. 15, 2024, after arriving from Mexico. (Photo by Kayla Jackson/Cronkite …

Campos said he emphasizes showing them love and care to help them heal and feel safe.

“When you treat them with love, you are already helping them to heal, so when people come here, the first thing we say to them in all languages is, ‘Welcome, welcome, welcome to the United States.’”

Many of the migrants that arrive at the church are escaping violence, and the church is their first sense of safety, Campos explained.

“Almost everyone who has passed through Mexico has struggled a lot. It’s the violence; even though they haven’t been kidnapped, there’s the danger of kidnapping and the threat of being sexually abused,” Campos said. “Because even though it hasn’t happened to them, the risk is imminent.”

For thousands of migrants, the reality is it takes months to escape violence and end up somewhere like Monte Vista Baptist Church. Here, the staff works to keep their spirits alive and give them the ability to endure challenges and hardships and continue to look toward the future with hope.