Desperate Cubans in Mexico because the US has not attended political asylum interviews for 10 days

“We don't want to work here, what we want is to go to the United States, they want to give people here the jobs that no Mexican wants,” said one of the emigrants from Cuba.

30/07/2019 - 3:38pm (GMT-5) |

Cargando — Cuban migrants in Mexico Photo © Facebook Capture

This article is from 4 years ago

From July 20 until noon yesterday, Monday, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not call anymigrant on the border with Mexico to interview for the request for political asylum, according to Enrique Valenzuela, head of the State Population Council (COESPO) in Ciudad Juárez, reportedThe newspaper.

“It is desperate, we have to pay rent, we are afraid of being here in Mexico, they send us money, but our families also have needs,” a Cuban who was outside the COESPO facilities in Juárez told the media.

“We don't want to work here, what we want is to go to the United States, they want to give people here the jobs that no Mexican wants,” added another of the emigrants from Cuba.

To date, 12,088 migrants have attended the interview in the US out of a total of 17,690 registered people.

"We estimate that 5,600 numbers are pending, but of these we know thatmany already went by some other means"We estimate that there could be 3,600 or 3,800 people waiting here in the town," declared the COESPO official.

On the other hand, Cuban Yoleksander Tamayo Herrera, 36, has been in Ciudad Juárez for more than a month with his wife, stepdaughter and his wife's aunt. They have a turn to interview in November, so they will have to wait at least three more months in this border city.

Faced with the stoppage of interviews, this Cuban also expresses fear, because the wait could be extended and they are already thinking about looking for any job to survive the time that awaits them.

“We have to work to sustain ourselves; Luckily, here they provide us with some documents that they ask of us to be able to work,” he commented.

“I was looking at the sign out there saying that they haven't called anyone in about 9 days, since I got here they called 10 people, 12 people, and it's been very, very slow. We have to be patient and wait for God to do his work in this case because we could go crazy and if we force ourselves there it is a federal crime and it would complicate things,” said Tamayo Herrera.

This July, the Donald Trump Administration imposed anew legal obstacle which makes it even more difficult to request asylum in the US.