At US Border Hole, Asylum Is Still Possible

Yuma, United States, June 7 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Jun, 2022 ) :When a young Colombian man and his family arrived at the US border early one morning, they helped themselves to bananas and water, then sat down in the shade and waited for American patrol officers.

Like dozens of others who enter the United States every day through this gap in the fence, they are not trying sneak into the country unnoticed.

"We don't want to cross illegally, we want to ask for asylum," says the 30-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous and said he was fleeing violence in his home country.

In the United States, the stream of impoverished migrants flowing up through Mexico remains a potent topic in the public discourse, dividing the nation's politics and coloring relations with countries to the south.

The issue of migration is set to loom large at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week, even without the presence of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is boycotting the gathering in protest at the exclusion of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

Pandemic-era restrictions that allow the summary rejection of an asylum claim remain in force at the border, despite plans by US President Joe Biden to scrap them.

The so-called Title 42 can automatically bar entry to anyone without a visa, but at an informal border crossing in sun-scorched Yuma, the vast majority of those arriving are still able to lodge a claim for asylum, either because of the makeup of their family, the country they came from or the danger they face.