Headlines draw attention to caravans of migrants approaching the border between the United States and Mexico; the hopeful asylum seekers often traveling thousands of miles across unforgiving terrain to seek refuge in the U.S. But when their journey ends at the border, the wait begins.

In the past, migrants fleeing political instability, gangs, cartel violence, persecution for their sexual orientations or gender identities and abject poverty in their home countries who requested asylum were allowed to enter the United States until their hearings. Under the Trump Administration, however, new Wait in Mexico policies are forcing asylum seekers to wait weeks—and sometimes longer—for their claims to be evaluated. This waiting period, called metering, puts migrants at risk, according to Daniel E. Martínez, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Arizona.

“We know that there have been several cases of [migrants] asking for asylum, being told to remain in Mexico until their interviews or hearings who ended up being kidnapped, sexually assaulted or raped,” Martínez says. “Metering puts people who are already quite vulnerable at even higher risk.”

Previously, migrants who reached the United States’ southern border sought asylum by surrendering to American Customs and Border Protection. Many of them, including children, were interned in a network of detention centers.. But in early 2019, the United States struck a deal with Mexico to make nearly 60,000 asylum seekers wait for their hearings in that country.

Border towns often lack the infrastructure to deal with large population influxes, forcing asylum seekers to find ad hoc housing, often living together in shantytowns that lack adequate sanitation and increase the risks of illness. The search for employment is also fraught; migrants are often victims of economic exploitation, working in unsafe conditions for subpar wages.

More than a year later, the coronavirus pandemic has sealed the borders these groups once crossed. Some wait for asylum in the U.S. or in Mexico; many work on the fringes of the informal economy. The virus has frozen their applications and the cramped camps where they live are said to be on the brink of humanitarian disaster as COVID-19 cases appear.

In some areas, the Mexican federal government has stepped in to offer services to migrants who are waiting for their hearings; non-governmental organizations and private entities are helping out in other regions. But the situation remains tenuous and long waits in dangerous conditions could create another issue.

“The backlog is so long and it’s risky to remain in a foreign country [and] people are getting frustrated,” says Martínez. “The border buildup could funnel migration away from urban crossing points…into more remote areas; rather than waiting months for their interviews, more and more people might try to go between ports of entry and turn themselves in to border patrol to try to help expedite this process. I think we could do more as a country that claims to be a nation of immigrants to help alleviate those pressures.”

Mounting Pressure & Problems

Anna Ochoa O’Leary, head of the Mexican American Studies department at the University of Arizona, blames the current administration for ignoring long-established laws that entitle asylum seekers to wait for due process in the United States.

“This administration is not even listening,” O’Leary says. “If you have a credible fear, you are entitled to due process…but with the uptick in the number of people, mostly women and children, arriving in these caravans, [the president] is saying, ‘If you have a credible fear, you have to wait in Mexico…and Mexico doesn’t have the infrastructure to deal with [migrants].”

While migrants waiting in Mexico for their hearings face great risks, the ongoing crisis at the border also has the potential to further strain relations between the United States and Mexico. In the latest standoff, the president threatened to levy tariffs on its biggest trading partner if Mexico failed to clamp down on the influx of immigrants between the nations.

“I'm sure [Mexico] is feeling tremendous pressure in terms of how to deal with this backlog of people coming up through Mexico and remaining near the border,” Martínez says, “and there is no doubt that could potentially affect U.S.-Mexico relations.”

A Bastion for Human Rights

At UArizona, researchers are studying migration, human rights and human security, and often collaborate with other institutions, including the National Autonomous University of Mexico, to share information and resources to help better understand the issues on both sides of the border.

Binational scholarship is important to help inform policy decisions but William Paul Simmons, director of the graduate certificate program in Human Rights Practice at UArizona, believes there is another, more personal reason that the university must engage in research and advocacy around immigration issues.

“Many of our students are from Mexico and Central America; their families fled to the U.S. to escape violence and some of them still have families trying to make the trip to safety on this side of the border,” he says. “We are ground zero for the migrant crisis because we are so close to the border and we need to stand up as a bastion for human rights.”