Two UN support groups in southern Mexico reportedly arrive there with “repressed memory” that allows them to obtain asylum cards in Mexico, pass north, and then illegally enter the United States. I am instructing immigrants to do so.
According to Todd Benzman, a security fellow at the center, both costumes called Fray Matias de Cordova, based in the Mexican city of Tapachula near the border between the Jesuit Refugee Association and Guatemala, are “ in the shop window. Promotes “psychological” support. For immigration studies, it supports greater restrictions on immigrants.
These sessions, reportedly attended by thousands of migrants, help people regain their memories of the trauma they received in their home countries, when Frey Matthias de Cordoba’s Enrique Vidal visited the southern region last month. Told Benzman. Immigrants can qualify for asylum in Mexico by claiming to be victims of such abuse, even if the initial application is rejected due to financial difficulties, as is often the case. increase.
“With a new memory of more qualified claims, immigrants get asylum (a term often used interchangeably with refugee status) and a Mexican residence card,” Benzman said on the organization’s website. Immigration across the American border. “
The concept of repressed memory and its credibility as evidence has proven to be controversial in US jurisdictions. In the 1990s, some notable incidents involving day care centers were talked about, and children were told that they had undergone strange sexual and demonic rituals.
In the aftermath, some experts sought to uncover the effectiveness of “repressed memory” as a source of credible evidence. According to scholars who delve into psychology, it is widely agreed that memories of horrific and traumatic experiences can be buried, but such memories can also be created.
Benzman told Vidal, a border aid group, “The people you are helping [have] He has already made the mistake of not communicating to the authorities the status of asylum or refugee, that is, their traumatic experience worthy of their complaint.
“Yes, that’s right,” Vidal replied.
According to an excerpt from an interview, Vidal tells Benzman his group by helping clients overcome their previous denials of Mexico and obtain the necessary documents for immigrants from the “Northern Triangle” country. Said that they achieved a “high success rate” (90% or more). Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti in El Salvador and other countries continue their journey north.
The Jesuit Refugee Association did not answer the written questions from RealClear Investigations regarding its activities in Tapachula, especially psychological counseling sessions.
The United Nations and the Mexican Embassy also did not answer the question. RCI left a phone message to Vidal in English and Spanish, but the call was not returned.
Benzman said he traveled to southern Mexico in January after Mexican authorities had bottled thousands of migrants in Chiapas and Tabasco at the request of the Biden administration.
The flock of immigrants in Tapachula led to a tense relationship between Mexicans and newcomers. About 350,000 cities were in the news last week when 12 illegal immigrants shut their mouths on what Reuters called a “bid to persuade the country’s immigrants.” The authority to allow them to cross the US border. “
Benzman said he was confused while traveling by a signboard at a storefront offering “psychological” services in Tapachula, about 1,500 miles south of the US border. Immigrants told him that the session provided a new way to asylum cards. It allows a person to travel freely within the country once given by Mexico.
“They need a Mexican asylum, residence card,” he said. “It’s a card that allows them to travel to our borders.”
In their interview, Vidal told Benzman that his group provided counseling because many people were unfairly denied asylum cards. He agreed that many people want to move to the United States for financial reasons, but that’s not all, he said.
Therefore, psychological counseling that appears to be provided by both individuals and groups.
“they [have’ need of a lot of psychological assistance to clear things in their memories so that they can remember what they went through in their country,” Vidal said, mentioning “different acts of violence, sexual abuses, detentions and or tortures.”
When Bensman pressed, asking if the counseling couldn’t veer off into “coaching” such memories, Vidal pointed to the better-than-90 percent success rate of getting refugee status in Mexico as proof the people were telling the truth.
“If in the majority of the cases the people would be lying we wouldn’t be successful, the authorities would not approve of our cases as refugees,” Vidal said. “If we have a high percentage of success [it] that is [is] The truth about what people are saying. It is very difficult for immigrants to lie because of the immigrant influence that implies itself, and authorities will know about it. “
“The other is that, unlike immigration law, we have a very good relationship with the authorities responsible for evacuation procedures, and this authority believes in our work and organization. . “
RCI asked two prominent experts, Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, and Richard McNally of Harvard University, about the topic of “repressed memory.” They don’t know what’s going on in tapachula, but they said there was a problem with that practice.
“I only know about the suggestive activities that occur in treatments that lead people to memory of sexual abuse,” says Loftus, who helped unravel the hoax of “repressed memory” in Wenati, Washington. I did. 1990s. “Similar activities can be done in immigration interviews, which can help people build memories that serve useful purposes for them.”
This article was written by James Varney RealClearInvestigations..
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