The US implements a new immigration policy to avoid the Darién

Five years ago Alexis Llanos and his family fled Venezuela toward Colombia, escaping death threats and political persecution. They did not achieve stability there either and decided to cross the dangerous Panamanian jungle of the Darien to illegally cross the border USA with Mexico.

Their plans already had a date for August 2023 when a friend told them about a new United States government program that would allow them to arrive legally. So they decided to wait, and it worked.

After a four-month process that included medical examinations and numerous interviews with United Nations agencies and US officials, Llanos, his partner Diomaris Barboza, and their 7- and 3-year-old children arrived in Florida.

“It was a unique opportunity, a miracle that God had prepared for me,” said Llanos, 27, in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I feel blessed, grateful… I didn’t want to take the risk, I wouldn’t forgive myself if something had happened to them because of me.” crossing the jungle, he said.

The Llanos family is one of the first to have arrived legally to the United States through a new program from President Joe Biden’s government known as “Safe Mobility Offices”, which works in Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ecuador.

The goal is to speed up the refugee process so that migrants do not have to pay human smugglers on a dangerous journey through numerous countries before reaching Mexico’s border with the United States, which has had a record of illegal crossings. So far about 3,000 refugees have arrived in the United States through this program, and 9,000 have been approved.

The impact on illegal border crossings, however, has been minimal. In December, there were more than 10,000 daily arrests of migrants for several days. In cities like Chicago, New York and Denver, immigrants who do not have access to work permits sleep in police station lobbies and airports.

The issue of the United States border with Mexico is central to the 2024 presidential campaign, with strong criticism from Republican opposition to Biden’s immigration policies.

Republicans are demanding more restrictive policies that would sharply reduce asylum protections, among other things, and are pressing ahead by negotiating this in exchange for Biden’s request for tens of millions of dollars of additional aid for Ukraine.

The program was created at a time when the administration seeks to curb the illegal crossing of migrants and Congress refuses to debate reform of immigration laws. Migrants, especially families, can still reach the US border and seek asylum. There they are given an appointment for immigration courts and must prove that they are eligible to stay in this country. The delays are very long, and immigrants end up waiting years to get a court date. Meanwhile, they remain in limbo without knowing if they will be able to obtain any type of legal status.

Through the safe mobility initiative, they arrive as refugees who have already met certain requirements and are authorized to live and work in the United States. The process usually takes years, but through this program it is completed in a matter of months.

Some immigrant advocates applaud the initiative, but warn that it should not be used to replace the asylum system.

“It is extremely important that these pathways exist now. They are going to offer security to many people who otherwise would not have the means to access that legal avenue,” said Hannah Flamm, policy advisor for the Refugee Assistance Project. But she warned: “no improvement in access to refugee resettlement can come at the expense of the rights of asylum seekers at the border.”

In the program, the government works alongside two United Nations organizations: the refugee agency, better known as UNHCR; and the International Organization for Migration, IOM.

To register, migrants must first answer a series of questions online on the initiative’s website. After passing several eligibility filters, their cases are referred to UN agencies, which do the first interviews and then send the files to the United States government, which decides whether to approve them or not. Even in cases where those interested do not meet the requirements to arrive as refugees, authorities can evaluate whether they could arrive under other temporary legal programs.

“This process makes it easier and reduces time” for refugees, said Luiz Fernando Godinho Santos, UNHCR spokesman for the Americas.. “It prevents people from having to make these movements throughout the region and allows many of them to access these legal routes from the countries where they are located.”

Jefferson Castro, the Venezuelan who told Llanos about the existence of the program, also signed up to immigrate to the United States legally from Colombia, where he has remained since leaving Venezuela in 2018 due to police threats.

After several interviews with UN officials, in September he traveled nine hours by bus from Medellín to Bogotá with his wife and two children, ages 8 and 4, for more interviews with US officials, medical exams and cultural immersion courses.

They spent at least nine days in a hotel in Bogotá and finally learned that three other families who had traveled with them from Medellín had been approved. Castro thought they would be approved too, and he sold the refrigerator, the beds and the motorcycle he used to work making home deliveries. But weeks passed in limbo, without any news about the status of his case.

“I was left without a job, without money, without answers,” Castro, 28, said in a recent telephone interview with the AP from Medellín.

At the end of December, after about three months of not receiving any communication, he finally received an email letting him know that they were approved. They have, however, one obstacle to overcome: they require him to process the passport of his Colombian daughter and he assures that he does not have the 100 dollars that he needs to cover the costs.

“How can I have faith without work? How do I get a passport if I don’t have money?”Castro asked himself. “I don’t know what to do”.

Some immigration activists say the program can be confusing, there is not enough information and it is also unavailable to most migrants. In Colombia, for example, only Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans who were already in that country on June 11 or before can apply.

Still, it’s a good start. And the families that are approved to arrive as refugees in the United States have the help of a non-governmental organization that assists them with their resettlement in the United States.

“It is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of providing people with mechanisms to safely seek asylum rather than relying on coyotes and undertaking a dangerous journey from wherever they travel to the United States border.”said Lee Williams, program director for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

Like the Llanos, Venezuelan Adanny Hurtado and his family arrived in October. They are living in Houston, Texas, in a two-bedroom house whose rent is paid by a non-governmental organization that also helps them with food and work permit paperwork.

Hurtado already works as a welder and his wife as a customer assistant at Walmart, while the two children, ages 5 and 9, attend public school.

“I still can’t believe it, I think it’s not real, sometimes I stop and I can’t believe I’m here in the United States,” Hurtado, 29, said. “Safe Mobility was the hand that God extended to me.”

Santos, however, warns that the program is not a definitive solution or a replacement for the asylum system, but rather should be part of a broader response to the problem of migration, which continues to grow: about 18, 4 million displaced in the American continent, according to a UNHCR report from 2023.

Llanos and his family spent weeks of uncertainty in Colombia without knowing if they would be eligible to arrive legally to the United States. The news reached them after their last interviews, after 10 days in a hotel in Bogotá. The wait, however, was less than that of others.

“We didn’t know the answer until the last day”, assured Llanos. The family sold their belongings and with the help of Lutheran immigration services they arrived in Lehigh Acres, a small town in the Fort Myers area, about 225 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of Miami.

They now live in a two-bedroom house on a quiet street where they are already making new friends. Lutheran services are helping them with medical exams and paperwork they need to become legal residents, including enrolling their oldest daughter in school. For now they don’t have to worry about money since they also pay their rent and provide food.

The owner of the house, with whom they communicate through a mobile phone translator, has already offered Llanos a job on construction sites. In a few months, when they are completely settled, they will have to start paying US$3,000 for plane tickets, over a period of three years.