Elizabeth Gómez is a Honduran woman who fled her country due to gender-based violence and, after a difficult journey, managed to reach the United States a few days ago, where she says she feels free and safe, but her case is unusual: in Mexico more 250,000 migrants were detained last year for being in an irregular situation
More than two months after fleeing her country due to gender violence , Elizabeth Gómez arrived in the United States, where she hopes to start a new life.
The 32-year-old was forced to flee Honduras after being threatened with death by her ex-partner and father of three children, and was part of the Migrant Caravan that arrived in Mexico City in December 2021.
When she was in Tapachula, Chiapas , she had to travel alone after she went to get food and the caravan left at a different time than previously established, in addition to other obstacles.
However, after spending a few days at Casa El Peregrino in Mexico City, and then traveling to the north of the country, she managed to cross the border and reach the United States, where she got a job and hopes to send money to her family to build or buy your house. For now, she no longer feels that her life is in danger.
“I feel free, I feel more confident, I go out, the first thing I did was go to church, to a church to thank God here in the United States.
“Thank God, I feel free that I’m not afraid, that I’m not thinking every night that something is going to happen to me, or that person arrives at the place where I am,” she says.
Her case is exceptional in a country where, from January to November 2021 alone, more than 250,000 foreigners were detained in their transit to the United States by the National Migration Institute for being in an irregular situation in Mexico.
Of these, around 101,000 were deported to their countries of origin. The above figures break the record for 2015, the year in which more detentions had been reported by the immigration authorities.
Elizabeth says that the companions of the caravan with whom she was traveling are still in Algodones, Baja California, waiting to be able to cross to the United States. Although they have tried, some have been retained and returned to Mexico
VIOLATED RIGHTS
Another of the difficulties faced by migrants seeking to reach the United States is the “ Stay in Mexico ” or “ Migrant Protection Protocols ( MPP ) ” program, which was restarted at the beginning of last December by court order.
The MPP forces asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while they await their hearings in the Immigration Court of the northern country. This was first implemented in the Donald Trump administration .
Despite the fact that the Mexican authorities have assured that there are new measures to attend to this population , human rights organizations point out that practically the migrants are abandoned to their fate and exposed to organized crime .
According to the Institute for Women in Migration AC ( IMUMI ), it has been documented that this program represents exposing them to various forms of violence such as kidnapping, extortion and other violations, without the State guaranteeing their access to justice .
“It should be noted that unlike the first time that said program was established, which was limited to people from Spanish- speaking countries , this reinstatement establishes the return of people from all over the continent, including Haiti. The border points through which the returns have been made so far are San Diego and El Paso”, the IMUMI has indicated.
Because the program poses a risk to the lives of people seeking international protection by violating their right to due process, to the principle of non-refoulement and to security , different Mexican organizations requested before the Seventeenth District Court in Administrative Matters of the Mexico City put an end to this program through amparo 1887/2021.
“The Mexican Government cannot continue to contribute to policies that violate the right to protection of persons and that represent going against our Constitution and international commitments (…).
LIVE FREE IN AMERICA
Elizabeth traveled alone from Honduras to the United States and along the way she met and was accompanied by other migrants to the northern border , where they parted ways. Most of them still remain in Mexico, waiting to cross.
She remembers that after arriving in Baja California , on the border with the United States, and seeing that it was difficult to cross, she set a deadline to do so: Sunday, January 16. If she didn’t make it, she says she was going to stay in Mexico and look for a job .
However, she met four Nicaraguans who had been returned to Mexico and, at 11:30 p.m. that day, he managed to cross into the United States. After several days, she managed to arrive with some acquaintances and now has a job as a caregiver for two people.
“At the moment what I think is to work and do things there in my country, to be able to achieve the goals that I bring from there in Honduras. My first goal is to buy my house or buy my lot, a finished house or the lot to build it on”
“I feel super happy, I walk around laughing, they tell me ‘Eliza walks as happy as if nothing had happened’. I tell them, how can I not be happy if God granted me my dream that I asked for so much? So much that we suffered along the way,” she says.