Over 2 million migrants were arrested while illegally crossing the southern border in 2021, and another 2 million are expected in 2022. About half of these migrants are turned back to Mexico under the authority of Title 42, which allows migrants to be turned away for public health reasons. But President Joe Biden let the other half in, often with little more than a piece of paper saying when they should show up in immigration court to pursue a claim for asylum.
Many do not show up. But where do they go?
Reuters
published a profile of one of these migrants last week, and her story sounds typical of most migrants who venture north in search of a better life.
Amelia Domingo and her family paid smugglers $10,000 to help her travel out of Guatemala, through Mexico, and then across the border into Arizona last February. Like most recent illegal immigrants, Amelia immediately surrendered to Border Patrol agents, knowing that under Biden’s policies, she would not be returned to Mexico, but would instead be helped on to her final destination, Enterprise, Alabama, where her illegal immigrant sister, Rosa, was waiting for her.
Amelia spent about a month in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is how long it took her sister Rosa to send HHS documentation showing that Amelia was her sister and that Rosa had a home for her to stay.
No effort was made to establish Rosa’s citizenship.
After $800 in airfare was sent to HHS, Amelia was transported to Enterprise, where, for $1,500, Amelia was given a Social Security number and a driver’s license from a broker.
Amelia then used the fake ID and Social Security number to get a job at a chicken processing plant where she works eight hours a day, six days a week, for $10 an hour. This may not sound like much, but it is more than double what she was earning in Guatemala.
“Enterprise welcomes us,” Amelia’s older sister Rosa, who arrived illegally over a decade ago and has two children born in the United States, told Reuters. “The jobs are waiting for us.”
At some point, two social workers did visit Amelia’s address to see if she needed help enrolling in school, but the sisters said no help was needed. “School isn’t for me,” Amelia told Reuters. “I have debts.”
No federal immigration officials have made any effort to follow up on Amelia.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of Amelias in the U.S. right now working at food processing plants, washing dishes, and otherwise doing the jobs Americans won’t do for $10 an hour. And until we start turning people away at the border, more will keep coming.
