Phone: (202) 827-6673
Email: info@mayanleague.org
www.mayanleague.org
INDIGENOUS MIGRATION AND THE U.S. IMMIGRATION SYSTEM
The International Mayan League is a leading Indigenous Rights organization with a distinctive focus on the intersection of Indigeneity, gender and language justice, and migration. Our initiatives extend to the development of Indigenous-led research, comprehensive data collection systems, and mapping initiatives; placing Indigenous leadership, histories, languages, and realities at the forefront, firmly rooted in Maya Cosmovision, languages, and cultures. Our work sheds light on the overlooked challenges and barriers faced by Maya Peoples who, in addition to being forcibly displaced, are frequently invisibilized and marginalized in society at large.
Root Drivers of Indigenous Migration to the U.S.
Indigenous Peoples in Abiayala1 (the Americas) have experienced more than 500 years of genocide and colonialism. 2 Today, Maya Peoples are still dispossessed of their ancestral lands by megaprojects and transnational corporations due to the lack of legal certainty to lands, territories, and natural goods of the earth 3 4 Persecution of Maya Peoples, and more generally, Indigenous Peoples, based on their Indigenous identity is conducted with impunity in Guatemala and throughout the Americas. Furthermore, climate injustice related factors connected to environmental destruction caused by transnational corporations displace Indigenous Peoples as they are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to government discrimination and neglect.5 6 Gang violence in Guatemala exposes Indigenous children to violence which is an additional compounding factor forcing thousands of Indigenous children to seek refuge in the U.S.7 8
Lack of Disaggregated Data Invisibilizes Indigenous Migration
1. FY2023: 49,463 Guatemalan unaccompanied children were encountered at the Southwest border9 and Guatemalan family units totaled 87,214.
2. FY2023 42% of unaccompanied children in ORR custody were from Guatemala.10
3. 85,000 migrant children in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services continue to be missing.11
4. Six Maya children, youth, and an adult died or were killed under the custody of the U.S. government or by Custom and Border Patrol agents between 2018-2019.12
5. Though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not disaggregate data on Indigenous Peoples, we strongly believe that these statistics reflect that thousands of Maya children and families are seeking asylum because Guatemala is an Indigenous majority country
1 https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/natiindistudj.5.1.0042
2 https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2018/10/guatemala-un-experts-welcome-court-ruling-ixil-mayans-were-victimsgenocide
3 https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Guatemala2017-en.pdf
4 https://nacla.org/guatemala-maya-land-rights-court
5 https://sanford-dcid-files.cloud.duke.edu/sites/default/files/Migration-Policy-Brief-Guatemala.pdf
6 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9745731/
7 https://www.unhcr.org/us/news/news-releases/death-threats-and-gang-violence-forcing-more-families-flee-northern-central
8 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666623522000198
9 See: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters
10 https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/about/ucs/facts-and-data
11 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/15/us/migrant-child-labor-review.html
12 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iv_EGlHxJInoUCswB1x0TkHbfxMiSJIRtaWnRP2VCrQ/edit
How are Indigenous Asylum Seekers Affected by Anti-Asylum and Anti-Immigrant Federal Policies?
1. Raising the threshold to meet the credible fear interview (CFI) standard, will lead to the following human rights violations:
a. Widespread denial of Indigenous Peoples’ basic right to identify as an Indigenous person, due to erroneous misclassification as Latine/Hispanic;
b. Indigenous language exclusion hindering due process rights;
c. Increased expedited removal of Indigenous asylum seekers due to an inability to communicate in Spanish or English and prove credible fear.
2. Expedited removal programs like FERM (Family Expedited Removal Management) target refugees and disproportionately impact Indigenous Peoples. The extremely tight timeline in this program results in due process violations, difficulty attaining legal counsel and inability to secure Indigenous language interpretation.
3. Any policy resembling Title 42 expulsions or an asylum transit ban will be disastrous. Forcing Indigenous Peoples to seek refuge and apply for asylum in the very countries that systematically persecute them, is a death sentence.
4. The Biden Administration’s consideration of executive action to raise the credible fear standard and implement expedited removal and deportation proceedings would be detrimental to all asylum seekers.
INDIGENOUS-LED SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Biden Administration must take into consideration the many recommendations provided by human rights and immigrant organizations. From an Indigenous human rights’ framework, we have provided the key recommendations in various statements, comments on proposed rules, or directly to the White House Family Reunification Taskforce including:
1. The establishment of an Indigenous Peoples Commission in coordination and collaboration with Native American, Maya, and other Indigenous experts to lead processes and protocols rooted in an Indigenous Human Rights Framework;
2. Congressional oversight and transparency from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prevent future deaths and killings at U.S. borders;
3. Fundingfor the development ofIndigenouslanguage resources,requiredtrainingsfor all DHS, Department of Justice (DOJ), and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) personnel on Indigenous Peoples’ human rights instead of border militarization.
4. The United States Government must comply with domestic law and international agreements that it is a party to and uphold the human right to Asylum for all people;
5. Guarantee Indigenous Peoples’ right to their Indigenous identity, membership or Citizenship to an Indigenous nation at first point of contact;
6. Respect Indigenous Peoples’ right to their cultures and languages and provide Indigenous language interpreters.
Anti-asylum policies that violate domestic and international asylum law will continue to result in tragedy. Biden’s legacy on immigration will be cemented as one of the most extreme and abhorrent in history if he takes executive actions that deny the most vulnerable their right to seek asylum in the United States.