海角大神

In a corner of the plaza leading to the El Chaparral US border crossing, refugees and migrants start gathering in small clusters around 6:30 a.m. for the daily waiting game.

On a recent morning, as a light rain falls, individuals and families with small children arrive and separate into two groups: those waiting to hear whether today will finally be their day 鈥� after weeks in limbo 鈥撀爐o meet with a US border agent and ask for asylum, and those hoping to get their names on the waiting list.

The process is entirely volunteer-run, and the men and women who manage The List, as the long, black-and-white notebook is known, are all asylum-seekers themselves, hoping to create a sense of order in a disorganized, potentially chaotic process of entering the US through a legal port of entry to ask for protection. They aren鈥檛 vetted, and say they get nothing 鈥� like a better chance of being called 鈥� in return. Each tenure typically lasts a few weeks, and ends when the volunteer has his or her number called.

They face a bottleneck. The US is increasingly relying on a practice at the border called 鈥渕etering.鈥� It limits the number of asylum-seekers allowed to enter the US each day to launch the asylum-request process, to make the case聽that they can claim credible fear of returning home.聽Because of a combination of 鈥渮ero tolerance鈥� policies and a shortage of judges to hear and process cases, some observers estimate there鈥檚 a backlog of more than 1 million such cases in US immigration courts.

That pileup is visible on the Mexico side of the border, too. Metering means a growing number of asylum-seekers waiting 鈥� and self-organizing 鈥� at US ports of entry.

Melvin, who fled his home in Central America last summer due to political violence, is reviewing identification cards and passports and assigning numbers. People carrying passports from Ukraine, Eritrea, and Honduras, alongside others hailing from troubled Mexican states such as Guerrero and Michoac谩n approach Melvin one by one to get their names added to The List. People are told not to even show up again for at least a month, the minimum wait before they鈥檙e likely to be called for a chance to talk to US agents. Melvin estimates 500 people have had their numbers called in his first week on the job.

Later in the morning, a handful of numbers in the 1000s are read from the notebook. The 10 people associated with each number 鈥� if they鈥檙e present 鈥� are swept down the block to meet with an agent. If they miss the call, they鈥檒l be bumped down the list.

Now that the 6,000-strong migrant caravan has arrived in Tijuana, the wait at this port of entry is expected to grow to some two months or more. Already, it鈥檚 leading to desperate attempts to cross the border by other means 鈥� squeezing through the border fence or trying to swim around the barrier鈥檚 end in the Pacific Ocean. (The expectation there is that being stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents will provide an opportunity to ask for asylum on the spot 鈥� instead of waiting months in crowded camps and shelters or scrambling to feed one鈥檚 family until your number is called.)

鈥淭hey are being corralled at the border,鈥� says Maritza Agundez, a lawyer with the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, who was visiting a muddy, flooded migrant camp on a recent morning. Part of her volunteer work in Tijuana consists of talking with migrants about their asylum claims and helping them determine whether their case is strong enough to merit waiting and applying for protection in the US versus pursuing opportunities, like permission to work, in Mexico.

鈥淭hey have the legal right to apply for asylum in the US. That doesn鈥檛 mean they will get it 鈥� most people won鈥檛,鈥� she says, adding that The List has its benefits, but is imperfect. It's an added layer of bureaucracy in an already long, complicated journey for many here. No officials watch over it and there鈥檚 plenty of room for corruption and abuse. There have been allegations of favoritism and racism over whose name is called in the past. The notebook is handed off to a representative of Grupos Beta, part of Mexico's National Institute of Migration, at the end of each day, with the Mexican officials keeping it safe overnight. At some point they鈥檙e told how many people the US will see that day, and they pass that information on to the volunteers.

This morning, a young Nicaraguan man who has been volunteering to oversee the notebook stands up to denounce the lack of clarity around the process. One of his allegations is that someone has come to sign up multiple people from Argentina, even though they aren鈥檛 actually in Tijuana yet. At one point a Grupos Beta representative looks around panicked, not spotting the notebook. Melvin signals that it's zipped inside his jacket. The Nicaraguan volunteer finishes his speech to a sea of shaking heads but no tangible conclusion, and the registration process begins again.

Once launched, the asylum process itself can range from months to years. The timeline can differ depending on factors such as port of entry, age of applicants, number of beds open in nearby detention centers, and 鈥渏ust luck,鈥� says Sarah Boone Gavigan, an immigration attorney with The Central American Resource Center.

A 20-year-old man in a purple sweatshirt approaches Melvin around 8:30 a.m. He presents his Honduras passport and receives a number. 鈥淐ome back in a month,鈥� Melvin tells him, warmly.

The young man accepts the slip of paper with his number scribbled on it and then, head down, he turns to walk away.聽鈥淎fter everything,鈥� he says 鈥� his father鈥檚 murder after missing an extortion payment back home, the risky 15-day trek he made across Mexico 鈥� 鈥淚 really wasn鈥檛 expecting this wait.鈥澛�