31/03/2022
Central American Migration
Pushed back, beaten and eCentral American Migration
Pushed back, beaten and exposed: Stories from the US-Mexico border
An MSF team in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, offers regular medical care, including mental health care and social work, to migrants who have experienced trauma and violence. Mexico, February 2022.
© YESIKA OCAMPO/MSF
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Voices from the Field29 March 2022
RELATED
CENTRAL AMERICAN MIGRATION
MEXICO
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
For two years, under a policy known as Title 42, the United States government has used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to close its southern border to asylum seekers. This devastating policy has exposed highly vulnerable people to more violence and danger.
Title 42, invoked by the Trump administration in 2020 and repeatedly extended by the Biden administration, allows the blocking and expulsion of people seeking protection at the US border. The policy has been used to authorise over 1.45 million expulsions from the US to dangerous cities along the US-Mexico border, where people are abandoned with limited access to shelter, basic services, and at threat of violence from criminal gangs or police.
Every day, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in Mexico witness the fear that asylum seekers and migrants face due to the policy of Title 42. For two years we have repeatedly stated that there is no legitimate public health justification for Title 42.
Title 42 is a xenophobic policy disguised as public health protection that does nothing but put vulnerable people in harm’s way. There is no excuse for continuing to misuse the order to turn away asylum seekers and block their right to seek protection. The Biden administration must end Title 42 immediately.
Below are testimonies from people recently expelled from the United States under Title 42, who are now stranded in Piedras Negras, along the US-Mexico border.
MARVIN ULLOA, 37, FROM SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS.
“They grabbed me by the neck, threw me on the ground and handcuffed me. I had my face on the ground and he [an immigration agent] put his foot on my head. More agents arrived and beat me.”
Title 42
Marvin Ulloa, San Pedro Sula, 37, along with his wife and two-year-old daughter, crossed the Rio Grande into the United States and were detained and beaten by migration agents. Mexico, February 2022.
© YESIKA OCAMPO/MSF
Marvin is travelling with his wife and two-year-old daughter. He fled Honduras in April 2021 fearing for his life after a relative was killed. He was denied asylum in Mexico and crossed the river to reach the United States in February. There he was briefly held in US custody.
Marvin and his family are now living in fear in an abandoned house in Piedras Negras and are always at risk of being run off by local authorities. There are no shelters, he says, and the ones that are available he can’t afford. Below he describes physical abuse that he was subjected to in US detention and the deplorable living conditions for asylum seekers expelled to Mexico.
“The night of 13 February we crossed the river into the United States and the immigration police caught us. They beat me. I called them out and they got mad,” says Marvin.
“They grabbed me by the neck, threw me on the ground and handcuffed me. I had my face on the ground and he [an immigration agent] put his foot on my head. More agents arrived and beat me. My daughter covered her eyes and started to cry, but they didn't care. My wife was crying too and tried to stop it, but they grabbed her and sat her back down.” he says.
I want to cry but I pretend to be strong. As a man I could deal with this, but with a family, I don’t want them to suffer here.
MARVIN ULLOA, A MIGRANT FROM SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS.
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“They took us to a room. I asked if there was a lawyer who could help defend me and they said no. They didn't explain anything to me, they didn't even check to see if I was OK. They put a mat on the floor and I stayed there, enduring the cold and the fear. I didn't sleep well, my whole body ached. My head was swollen. At 7 a.m they came to leave us here at the border,” says Marvin.
“I'm worried about my health, that I'm going to lose my memory. Yesterday I saw someone I knew and I didn't recognise him. This whole part [his head] here is hurting me. That's why I want to go see MSF, so they can give me medicine. I was very affected by the beating they gave me in the detention centre in Eagle Pass [Texas]. There are cameras there and I think that what they did to me was recorded.
“I want to cry but I pretend to be strong. As a man I could deal with this, but with a family, I don’t want them to suffer here, enduring hunger and cold.
I’d like to reach the United States. I want to go somewhere else, to another country, where someone could help us. There’s no help here.”xposed: Stories from the US-Mexico border
An MSF team in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, offers regular medical care, including mental health care and social work, to migrants who have experienced trauma and violence. Mexico, February 2022.
© YESIKA OCAMPO/MSF
SHARE THIS
Voices from the Field29 March 2022
RELATED
CENTRAL AMERICAN MIGRATION
MEXICO
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
For two years, under a policy known as Title 42, the United States government has used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to close its southern border to asylum seekers. This devastating policy has exposed highly vulnerable people to more violence and danger.
Title 42, invoked by the Trump administration in 2020 and repeatedly extended by the Biden administration, allows the blocking and expulsion of people seeking protection at the US border. The policy has been used to authorise over 1.45 million expulsions from the US to dangerous cities along the US-Mexico border, where people are abandoned with limited access to shelter, basic services, and at threat of violence from criminal gangs or police.
Every day, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in Mexico witness the fear that asylum seekers and migrants face due to the policy of Title 42. For two years we have repeatedly stated that there is no legitimate public health justification for Title 42.
Title 42 is a xenophobic policy disguised as public health protection that does nothing but put vulnerable people in harm’s way. There is no excuse for continuing to misuse the order to turn away asylum seekers and block their right to seek protection. The Biden administration must end Title 42 immediately.
Below are testimonies from people recently expelled from the United States under Title 42, who are now stranded in Piedras Negras, along the US-Mexico border.
MARVIN ULLOA, 37, FROM SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS.
“They grabbed me by the neck, threw me on the ground and handcuffed me. I had my face on the ground and he [an immigration agent] put his foot on my head. More agents arrived and beat me.”
Title 42
Marvin Ulloa, San Pedro Sula, 37, along with his wife and two-year-old daughter, crossed the Rio Grande into the United States and were detained and beaten by migration agents. Mexico, February 2022.
© YESIKA OCAMPO/MSF
Marvin is travelling with his wife and two-year-old daughter. He fled Honduras in April 2021 fearing for his life after a relative was killed. He was denied asylum in Mexico and crossed the river to reach the United States in February. There he was briefly held in US custody.
Marvin and his family are now living in fear in an abandoned house in Piedras Negras and are always at risk of being run off by local authorities. There are no shelters, he says, and the ones that are available he can’t afford. Below he describes physical abuse that he was subjected to in US detention and the deplorable living conditions for asylum seekers expelled to Mexico.
“The night of 13 February we crossed the river into the United States and the immigration police caught us. They beat me. I called them out and they got mad,” says Marvin.
“They grabbed me by the neck, threw me on the ground and handcuffed me. I had my face on the ground and he [an immigration agent] put his foot on my head. More agents arrived and beat me. My daughter covered her eyes and started to cry, but they didn't care. My wife was crying too and tried to stop it, but they grabbed her and sat her back down.” he says.
I want to cry but I pretend to be strong. As a man I could deal with this, but with a family, I don’t want them to suffer here.
MARVIN ULLOA, A MIGRANT FROM SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS.
SHARE
“They took us to a room. I asked if there was a lawyer who could help defend me and they said no. They didn't explain anything to me, they didn't even check to see if I was OK. They put a mat on the floor and I stayed there, enduring the cold and the fear. I didn't sleep well, my whole body ached. My head was swollen. At 7 a.m they came to leave us here at the border,” says Marvin.
“I'm worried about my health, that I'm going to lose my memory. Yesterday I saw someone I knew and I didn't recognise him. This whole part [his head] here is hurting me. That's why I want to go see MSF, so they can give me medicine. I was very affected by the beating they gave me in the detention centre in Eagle Pass [Texas]. There are cameras there and I think that what they did to me was recorded.
“I want to cry but I pretend to be strong. As a man I could deal with this, but with a family, I don’t want them to suffer here, enduring hunger and cold.
I’d like to reach the United States. I want to go somewhere else, to another country, where someone could help us. There’s no help here.”
![JOSÉ MARÍA PAZ CELAYA, 31, FROM SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS“[The immigration agent] wanted to undress me and I told him tha...](https://img5.medioq.com/596/708/5007803715967083.jpg)
