The coronavirus or Covid-19 was first discovered in the U.S. in January of 2021. Progressively over the next couple of months, numerous cases were discovered as the virus began to spread rapidly in the United States. This caused a dramatic change to the daily life that Americans knew since schools, churches, and other customs that individuals once enjoyed had come to a steeping halt in the blink of an eye. For government agencies, this meant the closure of non-essential business offices that governor citizens and maintain regulations. For the U.S. Border Patrol, enforcement of the border was still a top priority, but doing so in a much safer manner took precedent above all else. According to the statistical numbers given by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there was an increase in the amount of unauthorized border crossings by immigrants since the start of the pandemic. It should also be noted the U.S. was under a different leadership during this time than it currently is. In early 2020, the President of the U.S. was Donald Trump, who set many barriers and preventions that made it very difficult for immigrants to gain entry into the U.S. legally. It appears that these same restrictions could have impacted the inflation of border breach attempts by immigrants during this time as well.

According to an article written by John Gramlich of the Pew Research Center titled “Migrant apprehensions at U.S.-Mexico border are surging again,” the number of apprehensions fell to just 16,182 at the start of the pandemic in the U.S. in April 2020, but climbed back up every month since this time, reaching 96,974 in February. During this time in the United States,  President Donald Trump had Title 42 in place, which was a program that allowed border patrol agents to deport undocumented individual’s even if they were seeking asylum. There were also other civil issues occurring in the U.S. during this time. There were numerous police involved killings of unarmed African American individuals that caused mass amounts of protest throughout the U.S. One notable case was the killing of an unarmed black man named George Floyd, who was killed by a white police officer named Derek Chauvin that kneeled down his neck in Minnesota. The other was the killing of an unarmed African American woman named Breonna Taylor. To go along with these two tragedies, President Trump was also under fire by the media because of his handling of undocumented immigrants and their children in this country. These individuals were forced into detention centers that arguably had worse living conditions than jail, and since there was an increase in the amount of border breaches by immigrants since the start of the pandemic, these centers were much more overcrowded than they would have normally been without a global pandemic.

In addition to the fact that was previously mention, there was one notable casualty of the circumstances that the immigrants were forced to deal with, and that was the death of a minor inside the center. Prior to the start of the pandemic on May 19th 2020, a 16-year-old boy by the name Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez died in a South Texas holding cell next to another sick inmate. Vasquez had been the 6th child to die that year under the supervision of U.S. Border Patrol guards. According to an article written by USC News reporter Leigh Hopper titled “COVID-19, suicide and substandard medical care driving high rate of death among ICE detainees, Thirty-five people have died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since April 2018, with a sevenfold increase in deaths even as the average daily population decreased by nearly a third between 2019 and 2020, a USC study shows.”

I spoke with an individual by the name of David Gomez who was once an immigrant and has had multiple experiences in dealings with border patrol officers, as well as U.S. detention centers. When asked why are the conditions of these detention centers are so poor and neglected, Gomez responded by saying that “ I honestly am not sure to be honest with you, we were treated like criminals the last time I had an encounter with them (border patrol) and I didn’t get why. I know of bank robbers and rapist that were treated better than we were, me and my brother were just seeking a better life and its a shame that we were treated like wild animals by what is supposed to be the best and most free country in the world.” Between Vasquez’s death and the testimony of Gomez, it is clear that there is an issue of mistreatment by U.S. Border Patrol authorities of immigrants that lack citizenship.

The leadership of the United States has changed recently as there is a new president in office. How much did the leadership and direction of the previous presidential regime impact the handling of immigrants in this country? On January 25th of 2017, Trump signed an executive order titled “Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements” which contained several clauses that would impact the freedom, dignity, and safety of illegal immigrants that were caught by authorities in this country. One of the clauses expanded the size of detention centers which increased the capacity of how many immigrants could be held. The issue with this expansion was that there was failure by the U.S. Border Patrol to also increase the amount of staff members that came with the expansion, which would explain why there was such neglect for the people that were held in these detention centers. I also asked Gomez about how he would compare the handling of immigrants between former President Donald Trump and Current President Joe Biden. He responded by stating that “ I mean Trump is known for his racist tendencies, we knew that before he took office that he was going to enforce rules that would make it much tougher on immigrants. I mean dude he literally said that he was gonna build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, which is some insane shit. Until this day, I still don’t understand how that man became the president of the U.S. But I mean as far as Biden goes,  he seems to be all for equality based on his campaign, but if he doesn’t revert the changes that Trump made during his run than he’s just as guilty in my mind, I guess we’ll see.”

The previous statement made by Gomez here is the point of Biden making changes to the policies that Trump put in place during his time in office. It is Biden’s responsibility to see that the immigration policies made by Trump has caused the lives of immigrants to be hectic while trying to find new life in this country, in some cases this has even costs immigrants their lives. Which is why it is fair to hold Biden accountable for failing to revert the changes made by the previous regime, especially if it goes against Biden’s campaign policy of equality.

In conclusion, the handling of immigrants in this country has been inhumane and barbaric by the U.S. Border Patrol. These innocent individual’s are treated like criminals and are kept in detention centers that have horrible living conditions which has cost the lives of many immigrants and children. There are many solutions that the U.S. can implement to change the way it handles immigration. One of which is increasing the speed of process at which an immigrant can apply for citizenship in this country. Another would be to simply improve the living conditions of immigrants that are held detention centers so they can safely return home if they are in fact deported. With a new presidential regime in office, there is hope that these inhumane conditions will improve with Biden in office due to the fact he preached equality as much as he did during his campaign run. To reiterate what Gomez said during his interview, Biden has to revert the changes made by Trump or else he will be just as guilty.