Today, Explained - Ukrainians (and Russians) meet US Border Patrol

Episode Date: March 30, 2022

The US southern border remains closed to asylum seekers on account of Covid-19, unless you happen to be Ukrainian. This episode was produced by Haleema Shah and Hady Mawajdeh, engineered by Paul Mounsey, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and edited by Matt Collette and host Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained   Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In case you hadn't checked in, they still haven't solved that problem at the southern border of the United States. In fact, they've just kind of put everything on hold, including Title 42. That's the one that says border agents are allowed to expel asylum seekers without due process because of COVID-19. So there's tons of Central Americans waiting on the Mexican side of the border trying to figure out a way into the United States. The only thing is, while they're waiting, the United States is waving Ukrainians in. Ukrainians who come to the United States via

the southern border get in while everyone else has to stay out because of COVID, and the Biden administration is getting called out on it. More than a year of the now-Biden-Harris administration, we continue to see this racist notion that black and brown immigrants, asylum seekers, are bringing disease across the border.

That's what's coming up on Today Explained. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit Superstore.ca to get started. My name is Gustavo Solis and I'm the border reporter for KPBS. And I'm Sean Ramos-Verm, one of the hosts of Today Explained. I asked Gustavo what's been different about his border beat lately. Well, the unique thing about what's going on at the border right now

is that we are seeing a rising number of Ukrainian, Russian, and Eastern European migrants to a part of the border that's usually used to getting migrants from the Western Hemisphere. When did that start happening? Russians have been coming in small numbers for a while, like really, really small numbers. But it's really escalated in like the last six months. I think I'm looking at CBP stats right now. In December, there were 2,400 encounters, which is a record. And how much has it ticked up since this war began? Do we know?

Anecdotally, it has gone up. I've seen it on the ground. I think Mexico reported something like 30,000 Russian nationals in January and February alone. So it's been kind of consistent. It's becoming a more established migration route now. And we assume the ones going to Mexico are trying to get to the United States? Oh, definitely. I would say 99.9% are using Mexico as a way through. Why do Russians and Ukrainians try to enter through Mexico? I mean, it makes sense for Central Americans, obviously, but why Eastern Europeans? It's right now very difficult to get a travel visa to the U.S.

So it's a lot easier to just fly to Mexico, buy a car, rent a car, drive to the border, and then cross that way. It's a lot easier to have access to the asylum process once you're already in the U.S. And here in San Ysidro, the port of entry is in U.S. territory. So you're technically already in the U.S. before you have your passport checked and you go through customs. There's actually a physical yellow line that marks the border boundary. And what was happening a lot more last year than this year, because CBP has caught on, Russian nationals would drive from Mexico to the U.S.

And they were kind of hard to spot at first, just because migration from that part of the world isn't very common here. And just to be frank, they're white. So CBP doesn't really like, or at least back then, they wouldn't really stop too much to look at them. They buy used cars, but they're not total junkers. They're nice looking cars. So on the face, it's like, oh, it's another family from San Diego who went down for the weekend to Mexico. And they would get waved through that yellow line,

but not through the actual port of entry, right? So it's kind of like you get through the first part, you wouldn't get through because obviously they didn't have passports or visas to come into the country, but they were technically already in, so they would have access to a little bit more safety measures than they otherwise would. Now what has happened, the car situation isn't really working out as much. So you're saying for these Russians, at least in recent memory, it's easier to drive through the southern border of the United States

because you might get mistaken for an American and just sort of get waved past. Whereas if you're proud at driving through that southern border, you're more likely to get stopped. That's basically it. Yeah. Okay. CBP officers are standing a little bit before that yellow line and kind of checking to see if you have a passport. They're not making you open it and look at it. They just kind of non-verbally give you a little like, hey, do you have your ID with you? And you show them through the windshield and then they wave you through. But there's been a couple of episodes of, there was one last year of a Russian nationals in a car just flooring it and kind of trying to drive

through the port of entry by force. And it got kind of nasty at one point. So for those who make it through the border successfully, what happens to them once they get in? It would be the normal asylum process, right? You tell a border official that you're afraid to go back to your country. You have a credible fear interview where you kind of establish why you're fleeing. For the Russian nationals, a lot of it is political persecution because they're pro-democracy activists. A lot of it is religious or anti-LGBTQ treatment. So they kind of, they establish that fear and then they get a case for immigration court and they go through the asylum

process. So is this like what we hear with Central American migrants where they're given humanitarian parole? I would say the Russians are getting more similar treatment to what the Central Americans are getting in terms of how they go through the asylum process. What we're seeing more recently after the war started was Ukrainians are getting kind of fast-tracked to humanitarian parole at the moment. How does the experience between, say, a Ukrainian crossing the southern border of the United States differ from a Central American migrant? Right now, it's night and day. I mean, just the fact that Ukrainians can cross and Central Americans, Mexicans, Haitians, basically anyone else can't cross right now. Even simultaneously, I mean, just a couple of days ago, I was at the port of entry. They had, the advocacy groups had this big two-year anniversary of Title 42.

And Title 42! And Title 42! Title 42 was first implemented by the Trump administration in March 2020. It allows officials to use the pandemic as a justification for turning away asylum seekers at the southern border. And they got a transgender woman from Mexico, a Honduran mother with an epileptic son, to try to go request asylum in the U.S. They were surrounded by cameras. They had two lawyers with them saying, hey, they're afraid to stay here. They're victims of crime in Mexico and they're running from their city of origin.

They need protection. They got turned away because of Title 42. But while that conversation was happening, simultaneously, three Ukrainian nationals came to the border. They waited maybe 10 seconds and then got waved through. So it's very impossible to ignore the optics of black and brown migrants are getting turned away while the white migrants are getting in. Today, the U.S. government continues to unlawfully expel individuals and families with absolutely no due process. And to be clear, I don't want it to seem like

people are pissed off that the Ukrainians are getting in. No, people are stoked and happy that these people who are fleeing a horrible situation in their country are getting access to the due process of asylum. They're just upset that everyone else isn't getting that same treatment. How are agents at the border justifying turning around Central Americans, Haitians, but waving the Ukrainians in to get asylum? Well, I mean, they don't really say much when I ask them. I mean, it really comes down to Title 42. It gives border officials absolute discretion over which asylum seekers can get through. It gives them the authority to turn everyone away, but also the discretion to exempt people on a case-by-case basis. So Border Patrol is a law enforcement agency, right? So it'd be like giving cops the authority to say who can and cannot file domestic violence charges. It's just kind of bonkers in terms of how we normally think of our criminal justice system. And who's

given these cops the order? It's a CDC order technically, but they were pressured by the White House. So I've asked the CDC a couple of times now, hey, could you justify this? Like, why is this still in effect after most of the COVID restrictions are lifted? Why are there no carve outs, like maybe let in vaccinated asylum seekers? Kind of basic questions you want to ask if this is really about public health. Yeah. Their answer is that I should ask the White House. When I asked the White House, their answer is that it's a CDC order and I should ask the CDC. I would certainly point you to the CDC. They, of course, make the decisions and recommendations about maintaining Title 42 and keeping it in place. It's rooted in preventing the introduction of contagious diseases

into the interior of the United States, but they have not made a decision to lift Title 42. Wow. No one's really taken ownership of this. The most public kind of guidance, if you can call it that, about how CBP's discretion is used came recently from the memo that said Ukrainian nationals should be exempted from Title 42 right now. What the memo doesn't say is that that exception could

be applied to any asylum seeker, including those for two years they've been blocked out from this asylum process. Maybe Ukrainians can't get COVID-19. Maybe, right? I don't know. But if we're afraid of the pandemic, like just Title 42 doesn't make any sense. Like I could cross right now and I'd have to show my passport, but I don't have to show proof of vaccination. But these asylum seekers, a lot of them who are vaccinated, no, they can't come because of the pandemic. I don't know, as a reporter, like, right, you want to be neutral. You want to be objective, but I don't know, as a reporter, like, right, you want to be neutral. Do you want to be objective?

But I don't know how you can look at Title 42 from an objective or neutral standpoint and call it justified. And meanwhile, what's going on at the border? Well, a couple of things. The fact that people are getting turned away at the ports of entry is causing them to try to cross between the ports of entry. Right. Because as I said, if you're in the U.S., if you're physically in the U.S., you have greater access to some of the safety measures that asylum provide you. So people who have tried to enter the country like 40, 50 times through the port of entry. They're getting desperate. They're running out of money. They're looking into hiring coyotes and paying thousands of dollars to go over the mountains or through the desert.

There's been reports of people drowning, trying to swim across the ocean as well. It is pushing illegal migrations more, Title 42. Also, there is one carve-out to Title 42, which is that unaccompanied children are exempt. So if unaccompanied minors from whatever country, they're more often than not getting in. In practice, what that means is that families are self-separating at the border. So if you have a mother with a couple of teenagers, she has to make the really difficult choice of sending

them and her staying in Mexico so that at least they have a chance for protection. Going back to 2020, after Joe Biden got elected, right, he campaigned on restoring the asylum process, having a more humane approach to immigration. Migrants heard that and they just kind of sat and waited and said, well, Joe Biden's going to be nicer than Donald Trump. They're still waiting today for that to happen. What's President Biden going to do in a minute on Today Explained? Support for Today Explained comes from Aura. Aura believes that sharing pictures is a great way to keep up with family.

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Of course, people at the southern border see right through it and feel like this is just plain unfair. And immigration advocates are pushing the Biden administration, as are reporters. This was from a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. So the policy decision has been made that the war in Ukraine and the displacement of those people is more urgent to the United States than the displacement of millions of people due to earthquakes, hurricanes, and political strife in this hemisphere. I think that's a little bit putting words in my mouth. My point was only that we're That's how we're interpreted, though. That's a little bit putting words in my mouth. My point was only that we're that that's that's on this side of the world. That's a little bit putting words in my mouth. All I'm saying is that we have put forward a process to allow 100 to bring 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the country,

given the incredible duress. To further understand the politics of this double standard, we reached out to Steph Kite. She covers immigration policy for Axios. We started with what happens to all the people turned away by Title 42. Well, under Title 42, a few different things can happen. Some are being returned to Mexico, just being kicked right back across the border and being told to go to various shelters that are set up in Mexico along the border. and others are being returned to their home countries. Nearly 4,000 Haitian migrants have been expelled from the U.S. in the last nine days. The numbers are part of the Department of Homeland Security's latest deportation blitz.

The department is working to remove as many as 30,000 migrants, many of whom are from Haiti. The deportees were forced to leave the United States without ever having the chance to seek asylum. And this is the administration sort of enforcing and relying on a policy that came out of the Trump administration during the pandemic. Is that right? Exactly. In the beginning, this was always tied to COVID. But of course, critics of this policy have raised the question of whether this really is about public health or being used more as an immigration policy.

Right. I mean, their mask mandates are ending across the country. Regulations are ending across the country. And yet this Title 42 thing seems to be alive and well. Exactly. The Biden administration continues to use it. It's been used more than a million times by border officials under the Biden administration. But we are certainly keeping an eye on whether the CDC will ultimately lift this policy. It's something that they reassess every 60 days. And the next deadline for that is in early April.

So there are lots of conversations internally in the administration and among immigration experts and reporters really watching to see whether we see this extended for another 60 days or ended in early April. And how many people are waiting in Mexican shelters just south of the border, waiting for Title 42 to end. They're believed to be ready to cross the border pretty much as soon as that policy is ended. And there could be 170,000 migrants total at various places throughout the region who are readying to try to cross the border once that policy is lifted. And do we get a sense what the administration wants to do once they potentially do lift Title 42? Do they want to let tens of thousands of migrants in? Do they want to figure out a different way to keep them out? Do we have any idea? Well, the sense we have so far, again, according to some recent reporting by Axios,

is that they are certainly preparing for very large numbers at the border. And most of that preparation is kind of collecting different things that they've done in the past. So this is, again, not the first time we've seen a surge at the U.S.-Mexico border. This latest caravan passing through Mexico, now numbering in the thousands. We saw one in 2014 with mostly migrant kids and families. They came without their parents, traveling into Guatemala, then Mexico, crossing the Rio Grande, and just now arriving in Texas. We saw one again in 2019 under President Trump, and we saw one last year under President Biden.

We're overcrowded. We don't have anywhere to put people, but we have them in our custody, and the system has bogged down, and there's no place for us to send them because the next level is not open yet. So they've had opportunities to kind of look at ways to manage these high numbers. So the administration is certainly looking at, you know, using not only resources

within the Department of Homeland Security, but also resources in other agencies that they can bring in and help control the numbers, make sure that they can provide humane care for migrants. We'll have to see kind of what direction they go as those numbers tick up. Has the Ukrainian crisis and the fact that there are now Ukrainians and more Russians at the southern border changed the calculus here for the administration or changed the sort of optics of what's going on at the southern border? Well, we have seen the administration respond to concerns about Ukrainians by, first of all, reportedly stopping deportations to Ukraine and surrounding countries. And they've also directed border officials to consider not putting Ukrainians in Title 42, to allow Ukrainians to apply for asylum in the U.S. through the normal process, using some exemptions that are worked into Title 42. There is a little bit of leeway for border officials to decide, you know, this person

probably should come through the normal process and not be expelled under Title 42. They'll go through the normal process through USCIS and immigration judges who will look at their claims and decide whether they do prove that they would face persecution in their home country if deported there. So, you know, that can be a pretty long process, though, and they'll be kind of in that backlog that has been forming over the years with so many people claiming asylum, especially those at the border. I just wonder, what is your sense here? I mean, obviously, the Trump administration's policies at the southern border of the United States were wildly controversial, though it's probably worth noting that a lot of people approved of those policies. Biden's coming in pledging to be a more compassionate president, more friendly to those people who are trying to get in to the southern border of the United States. But so far, he's sort of been maintaining these Trump policies, but now making this awkward exception for Ukrainian immigrants, though we're still dealing with the pandemic. Do you get the sense

that the Biden administration has been a little more capable or purposeful in how it deals with the southern border? You know, that's a really difficult question. There has certainly been a lot of criticism for the Biden administration on how they've handled immigration, particularly at the border. And that has come, honestly, from both sides of the aisle. We've seen Republicans accuse Biden of being too lenient, of being too welcoming, of allowing open borders. He does not care about Americans. He cares more about people who are not from this country. I need the Biden administration to step up and start providing the safety and security that Texans and Americans deserve. They point to reports of overwhelmed border officials releasing migrants into the country as an example of there being no order at the border.

But at the same time, more progressives and Democrats have very harshly criticized the administration, especially for its use of Title 42. I mean, the reality is they use it as an excuse to keep people out. That's always the case. It has never been about public health. They think it's inhumane to be turning back migrants and not allowing them to claim asylum. They point to the fact that a lot of these people are very desperate. They're leaving desperate situations and that they can face harm when they return to Mexico or other countries.

So it has certainly been a mixed bag when it comes to the Biden administration's handling of immigration. So it's hard to really provide a clear answer on what their goal really is at the border. Do you get the sense covering this story that you're just kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't? Like no one has the answers that satisfy a broad swath of Americans about the southern border? Politically, absolutely. You know, when it comes to immigration, it really is an issue that has become increasingly polarizing over the past few years,

both before President Trump and, of course, during his presidency. And we've seen both the right really attach onto this issue as something that they love to criticize Democrats over, criticize President Biden over. And we are seeing, you know, progressives continuing to push administration to do more, to do more, to do more. And nothing ever really seems to be enough. So it's certainly something that we see a lot of criticism over. And it's hard to see how to really navigate this issue politically. Steph Kite, you can find her work over at Axios.com.

Before her, you heard from Gustavo Solis. He covers the border for KPBS in San Diego. Find and support them at KPBS.org. Our program today was produced by Halima Shah and Hadi Mawagdi. It was edited by Matthew Collette and me. It was fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Mounsey. It is Today Explained. Thank you.