美国国家公共电台 NPR Shelters And City Governments Scramble To Help Migrants In The Rio Grande Valley

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

And now back to the border. According to the most recent U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, more than 76,000 people were apprehended¹ on the southern border in February. Administration officials have projected that number will surpass 100,000 for March. The highest number of crossings are taking place in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. One shelter in Brownsville that normally helps a couple dozen migrants a day recently saw their numbers spike² up to 400 or more daily. Texas Public Radio's Reynaldo Leanos Jr. reports.

REYNALDO LEANOS JR, BYLINE³: Marisela Almeida is the volunteer coordinator⁴ at Good Neighbor Settlement House in Brownsville, a shelter that helps the homeless, which is now also being used to house migrants released from CBP custody⁵.

LEANOS JR: This is airport right here.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: How many do we have?

MARISELA ALMEIDA: (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish).

LEANOS JR: The migrants are brought here for a short period of time and can shower, eat and get some clean clothes.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Do you have another (unintelligible) going?

LEANOS JR: Almeida is lining⁶ up people and putting them on a bus headed to the Brownsville airport so they can go to their next destination and await their day in immigration court. All along the Texas border, cities are dealing⁷ with an unprecedented⁸ influx⁹ of migrants. Jack¹⁰ White is the director of Good Neighbor. They started their Refugee Respite¹¹ Program back in August at the request of Catholic Charities RGV. Back then, their numbers were small. But White says he's recently seen hundreds of people every day and didn't receive an advance notice of releases. But he says they're dealing with it.

JACK WHITE: Will it be hard? Yes. But we don't intend to back off of the mission we've embraced, so they can keep sending them. We're going to serve them.

LEANOS JR: Migrants usually arrive at the shelter with some documentation showing if they have relatives or sponsors to contact to arrange shelter while they wait their immigration court proceedings¹². The wait can take months, even years because of the huge backlog¹³ of cases. Marianela Ramirez-Watson is the director for the Refugee Respite Program at Good Neighbor. She says last weekend, they ran into a new problem.

MARIANELA RAMIREZ-WATSON: A group of people showed up without their paperwork. And so the minute we caught it, we called CBP. And they said, oh, my gosh, we weren't supposed to send that bus yet. Some - you know, a little confusion when you're dealing with as many people as they are.

LEANOS JR: While local organizations like Good Neighbor handle the releases, the Trump¹⁴ administration continues to call on Congress to change immigration laws to stave off what they consider a national emergency at the border. But Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez says the real crisis isn't with the people asking for asylum¹⁵. Rather, it's with the immigration law system. Garcia Hernandez is an associate professor of law at the University of Denver and a Valley native. Garcia Hernandez says it's important to point out that this administration has already made changes in an effort to limit the number of asylum-seekers.

CESAR CUAUHTEMOC GARCIA HERNANDEZ: A person can make a claim - a successful claim for asylum based on abuse by a violent spouse¹⁶ or because of violence being inflicted¹⁷ by the gangs that are destabilizing much of Central America. The Trump administration has made it almost impossible to make those claims.

LEANOS JR: Still, asylum-seekers keep coming. As Good Neighbor braces¹⁸ for more, Brownsville's mayor, Tony Martinez, says his city has adapted to the challenge pretty well. He said CBP said to expect close to 6,000 migrants across the Rio Grande Valley.

TONY MARTINEZ: I've been in situations where, you know, there is no way to control something, whether it's a health problem or otherwise. And you really feel helpless and overwhelmed. And you're at your wits' end. Here, because of the community coming together, we kind of lift each other's spirits and lift each other's hearts to meet the occasion.

LEANOS JR: Meanwhile, CBP announced Thursday that construction of 13 miles of new border wall in the Rio Grande Valley will begin this month. For NPR News, I'm Reynaldo Leanos Jr. in Brownsville.

1 apprehended   

逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解

参考例句：

• She apprehended the complicated law very quickly. 她很快理解了复杂的法律。
• The police apprehended the criminal. 警察逮捕了罪犯。

2 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

5 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

6 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

7 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

8 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

9 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

10 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

11 respite   

n.休息，中止，暂缓

参考例句：

• She was interrogated without respite for twenty-four hours.她被不间断地审问了二十四小时。
• Devaluation would only give the economy a brief respite.贬值只能让经济得到暂时的缓解。

12 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

13 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

14 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

15 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

16 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？

17 inflicted   

把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They inflicted a humiliating defeat on the home team. 他们使主队吃了一场很没面子的败仗。
• Zoya heroically bore the torture that the Fascists inflicted upon her. 卓娅英勇地承受法西斯匪徒加在她身上的酷刑。

18 braces   

n.吊带，背带；托架( brace的名词复数 )；箍子；括弧；（儿童）牙箍v.支住( brace的第三人称单数 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来

参考例句：

• The table is shaky because the braces are loose. 这张桌子摇摇晃晃，因为支架全松了。
• You don't need braces if you're wearing a belt! 要系腰带，就用不着吊带了。