Mexican Border Research Articles

The U.S. Border Patrol

The year 2024 marks the centennial of the Border Patrol’s creation. This essay is an overview of how border policing on the Mexican border started, how it has been supervised over the past century, and how different presidential administrations and congresses have fashioned legislation to address America’s labor needs, vacillating between recruitment and expulsion drives.

Analysis of Psychotropic Substance Seizures Occurring in 2017–2022 in Tamaulipas, a Mexican Border State with USA

The trafficking of illegal substances is a global issue. Tamaulipas, a northeastern state in Mexico, is strategically located for drug trafficking to the United States by organized crime. In this study, drug seizure events conducted by the Mexican government in the main cities of Tamaulipas between 2017 and 2022 are analyzed. It was noticed that there was a decrease in events from 2017 to 2020, followed by a slight increase in 2021. Marijuana was the most seized drug, with cocaine and amphetamines following behind. The frequency of drug seizure events was higher in the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Matamoros due to their international commercial bridges with the USA. Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa showed a high amount of marijuana seized. In Matamoros, a coastal city, the quantity of cocaine seized was the highest. Results suggest that substances seized were intended to be illegally transported to the USA through Mexican border cities.

Entrevista a Claudio Lomnitz.: Segunda parte: el antropólogo creador

This interview corresponds to the second part of the talk held with Professor Claudio Lomnitz, which took place on April 19, 2023. In the academic world Lomnitz is recognized for his books that deal with important topics to think about national culture from anthropological and historical perspectives, such as nationalism, regional cacique power, the culture of death on the Mexican border with the United States, violence, religion; to intimate topics such as his own family legacy from a diasporic genealogy.

The real McCoy: A record of deep‐water basin deposition in southwestern North America during the Cretaceous

AbstractThe McCoy Mountains Formation (McMF) in southern California–Arizona preserves an anomalously thick record of sedimentation during the Mesozoic at a critical time when western North America experienced contrasting tectonic events related to intracontinental rifting along the Mexican Border rift system and consolidation of the North American Cordilleran system. The spaciotemporal interactions among these events and the development of the McCoy basin challenge our understanding of the evolution of the southern extent of North America. At its type locality in the McCoy Mountains, the McMF consists of ~ 7 km of low‐grade metasedimentary rocks, originally interpreted as meandering fluvial to alluvial‐fan deposits. Uncertainty in the initial timing of sedimentation in the McCoy basin has resulted in multiple tectonic models. We measured ~ 7160 m of detailed stratigraphy and present new sedimentological and detrital zircon results showing that the McCoy basin was occupied by deep‐water turbidite systems. These systems deposited an upward‐coarsening succession of fine‐ to coarse‐grained detritus during the Cretaceous (ca. 137–70 Ma). Provenance data indicate that the McCoy basin received sediment from Proterozoic basement rocks and metamorphosed Palaeozoic to early Mesozoic sedimentary units. These source rocks are equivalent to the stratigraphy found in the Grand Canyon and Colorado Plateau regions and were likely shed from the southward‐advancing Maria fold‐thrust belt and possibly the southern Sevier belt in southern Nevada and California. These results, combined with subsidence curves typical of foreland basins, favour deposition within a subaqueous flexural foreland basin system. The presence of a Cretaceous foreland basin this far southwest challenges previously proposed models and suggests that the contractional tectonic regime associated with the North American Cordillera extended into the southwestern most United States during the Early–Late Cretaceous.

The Detection of Xylazine in Tijuana, Mexico: Triangulating Drug Checking and Clinical Urine Testing Data.

Xylazine is a veterinary anesthetic increasingly present alongside illicit fentanyl in the US and Canada, presenting novel health risks. Although xylazine remains less common in the Western US, Mexican border cities serve as key trafficking hubs and may have higher prevalence of novel substances, but surveillance has been limited. We examined deidentified records from the Prevencasa harm reduction clinic in Tijuana, describing urine and paraphernalia testing from patients reporting using illicit opioids within 24 hr. Xylazine (two types), fentanyl, opiate, methamphetamine, amphetamine, benzodiazepine, and nitazene test strips were used to test urine and paraphernalia samples. Paraphernalia samples were also analyzed with mass spectrometry. The study consisted of 23 participants that provided both urine and paraphernalia samples. Of the participants studied, 100 %, 91.3 %, and 69.6 % reported using China White/fentanyl, methamphetamine, and tar heroin, respectively. The mean age was 41.7 years, 95.7 % were male, 65.2 % were unhoused, and 30.4 % had skin wounds at the time of sample collection.Xylazine positivity in urine, for the two types used, was 82.6 % and 65.2 %. For paraphernalia testing, the xylazine positivity was 65.2 % and 47.8 %. Confirmatory testing of paraphernalia samples by mass spectrometry indicated a 52.2 % xylazine positivity. This testing also revealed positivity rates for fentanyl (73.9 %), fluorofentanyl (30.4 %), tramadol (30.4 %), and lidocaine (30.4 %).The mass spectrometry results suggest lidocaine triggered n = 3 and n = 0 false positives among the xylazine test strip types. A total of n = 0 and n = 1 false negatives were also observed. Xylazine is present on the U.S.-Mexico border, requiring public health intervention. High lidocaine positivity complicates the clinical detection of xylazine via testing strips. Xylazine was found to be more prevalent in urine than in paraphernalia samples. Confirmatory urine studies are needed to better understand possible complications of using test strips for toxicological testing.

Learning in Transit: Crossing Borders, Waiting, and Waiting to Cross

Recent U.S. policy changes have contributed to longer waiting periods for migrant families in Mexican border cities. This study centers on four Honduran families enrolled in the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy, also referred to as ‘Remain in Mexico,’ while undergoing prolonged waiting periods in the Mexican border town of Monterrey, Nuevo Léon. Centering on young people’s voices, we ask what they learn during this prolonged period of transit. Through ethnographic and digital participatory storytelling interviews, we illustrate how children learned about the politics of border crossing through fraught interactions with im/migration officials, prolonged periods of immobility, and evolving understandings of legality. Building on theories of ‘border thinking’ and ‘politicized funds of knowledge,’ we highlight ways that young people employed their evolving understandings of national borders and the legal contours of their transborder asylum process, while protecting themselves and their families from danger and discrimination. We argue that transit is not simply time that young people are forced to endure; rather, the experience of forced transit is constitutive of young people’s learning about state power and their evolving understanding of borders, rights, and belonging.

Waiting in Captivity: Slow Borders, Predatory Bureaucracies, and the Necrotemporality of Asylum Deterrence

In recent years, the US government has implemented several bureaucratic changes aimed at stalling the influx of asylum seekers. From the “metering” system initiated under the Obama administration to the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) implemented by the Trump administration, these measures have erected a bureaucratic wall against asylum seekers that has kept them captive in Mexican border cities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Tijuana, Mexico, I examine how these policies have produced deadly conditions for asylum seekers by calibrating time and space in such a way that increases their exposure and vulnerability to highly precarious environments and predatory bureaucracies.

“The Caravan of Death”: Women, Refugee Camps, and Family Separations in the US–Mexico Borderlands, 1910–1920

Abstract: This article examines how Mexican border women negotiated war and family separations and gives new insights into the lives of women, families, and children who escaped the violence of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). As hundreds of thousands of Mexicans began crossing the border to the United States during the evolution, thousands of them, especially women and children, were detained and interned in refugee camps along the US–Mexico borderlands. This article examines the role of the US military in detention centers and argues that Anglo-American ideologies of race and gender shaped assumptions about Mexican women during the revolution that increasingly prevented Mexican women and children from seeking asylum in the United States.

Map silences and chronic humanitarian crises: Spatial patterns of migrant mortality in South Texas, 2009–2020

Forensic and humanitarian interventions deployed to address migrant death in US southwestern border states have become increasingly prevalent over the past four decades. In this paper we address two persistent issues specific to the Texas-Mexico border context. First, we present the first comprehensive geospatial analysis of migrant deaths in South Texas, establishing a twelve-year (2009–2020) mortality profile. And second, we introduce the concept of necrosilences and its implications to both forensic and humanitarian work and usage of geospatial tools. We applied ANOVA, spatial statistics, and cluster analysis to test the relationships of migrant mortality point locations throughout South Texas, an area comprised of ten counties with some of the highest reported migrant deaths in the state. Our findings demonstrated that unidentified human remains that corresponded to migrants were found most consistently in jurisdictions inland from the Mexican border. Further, the map visualizations highlighted vast areas seemingly devoid of migrant deaths. These “empty” areas are emblematic of necrosilences. That is, instances where there is a lack of access or accounting rather than no death incidences. We conclude by discussing the importance of visualizing necrosilences.

Cross-border utilization of cancer care by patients in the US and Mexico – a survey of Mexican oncologists

BackgroundThe US-Mexico border is the busiest in the world, with millions of people crossing it daily. However, little is known about cross-border utilization of cancer care, or about the reasons driving it. We designed a cross sectional online survey to understand the type of care patients with cancer who live in the US and Mexico seek outside their home country, the reasons why patients traveled across the border to receive care, and the barriers faced when seeking cross-border care.ResultsThe online survey was sent to the 248 cancer care providers working in the six Mexican border states who were registered members of the Mexican Society of Oncology. Responses were collected between September-November 2022. Sixty-six providers (response rate 26%) completed the survey. Fifty-nine (89%) reported interacting with US-based patients traveling to Mexico to receive various treatment modalities, with curative surgery (n = 38) and adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 31) being the most common. Forty-nine (74%) reported interacting with Mexico-based patients traveling to the US to receive various treatment modalities, with immunotherapy (n = 29) and curative surgery (n = 27) being the most common. The most frequently reported reason US-based patients sought care in Mexico was inadequate health insurance (n = 45). The most frequently reported reason Mexico-based patients sought care in the US was patients’ perception of superior healthcare (n = 38).ConclusionsMost Mexican oncologists working along the Mexico-US border have interacted with patients seeking or receiving binational cancer care. The type of care sought, as well as the reasons for seeking it, differ between US and Mexico-based patients. These patterns of cross-border healthcare utilization highlight unmet needs for patients with cancer in both countries and call for policy changes to improve outcomes in border regions.

Impact of Mexican Border rift structural inheritance on Laramide rivers of the Tornillo basin, west Texas (USA): Insights from detrital zircon provenance

AbstractLate Cretaceous to Eocene Laramide basement–involved shortening fragmented the Sevier and Mexican foreland basins. This resulted in a major drainage reorganization in response to the emerging topography of Laramide basement–cored uplifts and Mexican inverted Border rift basins. This study presents new depth-profile detrital zircon U-Pb data (3679 ages from 28 samples) from Upper Cretaceous–Eocene fluvial strata of the Tornillo basin in west Texas to determine sedimentary provenance and reconstruct sediment dispersal through the U.S.-Mexico border region. Detrital zircon U-Pb data are dominated by Hauterivian–Coniacian (130–87 Ma; ~20%) and Coniacian–Ypresian (87–52 Ma; ~30%) ages that represent Cordilleran and Laramide arc magmatism, respectively. Subordinate age groups are Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic (1900–1300 Ma; ~12%), Ectasian–Tonian (1300–900 Ma; ~8%), Tonian–Pennsylvanian (900–300 Ma, ~10%); Permian–Triassic (300–200 Ma; ~8%), and Jurassic–Early Cretaceous (200–130 Ma; ~11%). Detrital zircon maximum depositional ages provide new constraints on the chronostratigraphic framework of the Tornillo Group, the stratigraphic nature of the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, and the stratigraphic level of the Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum. Depth-profile core-rim age pairs yielded Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic and Jurassic cores with Cretaceous–Paleogene rims, which represent zircons derived from Laramide magmatic rocks that intruded Yavapai-Mazatzal basement and Cordilleran-Nazas magmatic rocks. Zircon grains with Ectasian–Tonian cores and Paleozoic rims likely represent Appalachian-derived and/or Coahuila terrane zircons recycled from the inverted Mesozoic Bisbee basin and Chihuahua trough. These results demonstrate that fluvial strata in the Tornillo basin were sourced from Laramide and Cordilleran magmatic rocks, Yavapai-Mazatzal basement, and recycled Mexican Border rift sedimentary rocks in the southwest United States and northern Sonora, and these sediments were delivered via a large (>103-km-long), axial-trunk river. Additional recycled detritus from Mexican Border rift sedimentary rocks in the Chihuahua fold belt was delivered via transverse tributaries. This drainage reconstruction indicates that the Tornillo river flowed along an inversion-flank drainage corridor adjacent to topography formed by the inverted Mexican Border rift. Therefore, inherited Mexican Border rift architecture represented a first-order control on sediment routing to the Tornillo basin.

Dental tourism: factors influencing travelers’ revisit intention to the Mexican border

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to find out the factors that influence dental travelers’ revisit intention (RI) to Tijuana, Mexico.Design/methodology/approachBased on the push and pull model, five constructs were included: quality service, price, supporting services, cultural proximity and quality information. The information was obtained by applying an online survey to a sample of 384 dental tourists in Tijuana, Mexico, who were repeat patients of a dental clinic in Tijuana after the COVID-19 pandemic. Exploratory factor analysis, average variance explained and composite reliability were conducted to ensure the validity of each construct. Multiple regression analysis was done to identify predictors of travelers’ RI.FindingsThe results obtained show that cultural proximity, quality service, price and supporting services influenced the travelers’ revisit behavior after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the body of knowledge on travel behavior in dental tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, which has been scarcely studied. Also, RI was analyzed, focusing on repeated travelers to propose a model mainly for borders or frontiers where developed and developing countries co-exist and interact.

“When you leave your country, this is what you’re in for”: experiences of structural, legal, and gender-based violence among asylum-seeking women at the Mexico-U.S. border

BackgroundRecent U.S. immigration policy has increasingly focused on asylum deterrence and has been used extensively to rapidly deport and deter asylum-seekers, leaving thousands of would-be asylum-seekers waiting indefinitely in Mexican border cities, a large and growing proportion of whom are pregnant and parenting women. In the border city of Tijuana, Mexico, these women are spending unprecedented durations waiting under unsafe humanitarian conditions to seek safety in the U.S, with rising concerns regarding increases in gender-based violence (GBV) among this population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given existing gaps in evidence, we aimed to describe the lived experiences of GBV in the context of asylum deterrence policies among pregnant and parenting asylum-seeking women at the Mexico-U.S. border.MethodsWithin the community-based Maternal and Infant Health for Refugee & Asylum-Seeking Women (MIHRA) study, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 30 asylum-seeking women in Tijuana, Mexico between June and December 2022. Eligible women had been pregnant or postpartum since March 2020, were 18–49 years old, and migrated for the purposes of seeking asylum in the U.S. Drawing on conceptualizations of structural and legal violence, we conducted a thematic analysis of participants’ experiences of GBV in the context of asylum deterrence policies and COVID-19.ResultsPregnant and parenting asylum-seeking women routinely faced multiple forms of GBV perpetuated by asylum deterrence policies at all stages of migration (pre-migration, in transit, and in Tijuana). Indefinite wait times to cross the border and inadequate/unsafe shelter exacerbated further vulnerability to GBV. Repeated exposure to GBV contributed to poor mental health among women who reported feelings of fear, isolation, despair, shame, and anxiety. The lack of supports and legal recourse related to GBV in Tijuana highlighted the impact of asylum deterrence policies on this ongoing humanitarian crisis.ConclusionAsylum deterrence policies undermine the health and safety of pregnant and parenting asylum-seeking women at the Mexico-U.S. border. There is an urgent need to end U.S. asylum deterrence policies and to provide respectful, appropriate, and adequately resourced humanitarian supports to pregnant and parenting asylum-seeking women in border cities, to reduce women’s risk of GBV and trauma.

Creating and supervising expressive arts groups for migrant families on the Mexican border

Voces, a coalition of volunteer expressive arts therapists, created a one-year programme for Central American migrants at a large Mexican shelter on the US border during 2020–21. A team of four psychosocial professionals at the shelter were trained via an online course and weekly self-care and supervision. Two Hispanic members of Voces guided the team in using music, dance, role-play, stories and art to help address the high levels of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression shown by the evaluations of 900 migrants waiting up to a year for US entry. The Voces members guided shelter professionals to create expressive arts groups for different ages of children and for parents. With scarce materials, online resources like Pixar/Disney shorts and Pinterest posters, culturally relevant music and cartoons were used to address emotional regulation, conflict resolution, attachment and self-concept.

The FBI’s Border Coverage (BOCOV) Program and the Ambiguity of Intelligence Missions

Intelligence services must routinely operate in liminal spaces, both operationally and bureaucratically. The Border Coverage (BOCOV) Program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was a Cold War example of an agency seeking to address the vulnerability inherent to a geographic liminal space. Its implementation of the program illustrated the impact of bureaucratic borders—between the FBI and Central Intelligence Agency and between Intelligence Community (IC) and non-IC agencies. Lessons learned, through the implementation of BOCOV, about interagency relations continue to be applicable as the United States contends with the cyber environment, an even more porous space than the physical U.S.–Mexican border.

Migration in the margins: border bureaucracy and barriers to migrants’ rights during Programa Frontera Sur

U.S. support for border enforcement in Mexico has been ongoing for decades, but in 2014, after the arrival of unprecedented numbers of Central American minors and families to the U.S., even greater pressure was placed on Mexico to seal its border with Guatemala. This paper explores the resulting tensions between Mexican border enforcement policies outlined under Programa Frontera Sur, intended to tighten security and surveillance in the south of the country, and Mexico’s 2011 Migration Law, intended to facilitate the protection of migrants’ rights. Through ethnographic fieldwork, I examine how the borders of the Mexican state are maintained through the (il)legibility of administrative rules and procedures in the context of conflicting immigration agendas. Specifically, this paper explores the precarious paths to legal protection via regularización de estancia por razones humanitarias, a temporary legal status granted to victims of grave crimes. It traces applicants’ circuitous trajectories through bureaucratic processes and evolving enforcement landscapes, noting the costs and contingencies involved in making claims ‘legitimate’ and legible in the eyes of the state. This paper also brings attention to the positioning of migrant shelters at the margins of state inclusion, where formal and informal mobilities often intersect. As a feminist geopolitical study of state bordering practices, this research is useful in understanding lived impacts and responses to more recent strategies of administrative border enforcement, including the MPP and Title 42 programs.

Crossing the US-Mexico border for cancer care: Which treatments are more sought-after?

e18576 Background: Crossing the US-Mexico border to seek healthcare is common, but limited data is available regarding cross-border cancer care. Since access and availability differs between Mexico and the US, we investigated which therapies were sought by Mexico and US-based patients crossing the border to receive cancer care. Methods: An online survey was sent to oncologists in Mexican border states (Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora, and Tamaulipas) using the Mexican Society of Oncology’s member directory. The survey was administered via REDCap in October-November 2022. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study was approved by the IRB of Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán. Results: Sixty-six respondents completed the survey (response rate 29.3%). Most were medical (n = 24, 36.4%) or surgical (n = 24, 36.4%) oncologists practicing in both public and private settings (71.2%), with almost a third practicing in Baja California (31.8%). Sixty respondents (90.9%) reported treating US patients seeking a second opinion in Mexico. Respondents reported patients traveled to receive various treatment modalities with curative surgery (64.4%) being the most common. Seven respondents (11.9%) had interacted with patients who traveled to Mexico seeking non-FDA approved therapies, including homeopathic/alternative treatments. Thirty-one respondents (47.0%) reported treating patients traveling to buy medications with oral chemotherapy (CT) (76.7%) being the most common. Fifty respondents (75.8%) reported treating Mexican patients who traveled to the US seeking a second opinion. Respondents reported patients traveled to receive immunotherapy (59.2%). Five respondents (10.2%) treated patients who traveled to the US to receive CAR-T cell therapy, not currently available in Mexico. Twenty respondents (30.8%) reported treating patients who traveled to buy medications, with oral CT (60%) being the most common. Conclusions: Mexican oncologists often treat patients seeking cross-border cancer care. Therapies sought by patients from both sides of the border differ, mostly due to local availability. Factors associated with these differences require further study to address disparities on health outcomes across the US-Mexico border. [Table: see text]

Pursuing cancer treatment across the US-Mexico border: Motivations and barriers.

e18575 Background: Healthcare utilization is a common reason for bidirectional travel across the US-Mexico border. We surveyed Mexican oncologists to understand why patients with cancer in the US and Mexico seek care outside their home country and what barriers they face. Methods: Approval was obtained from Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán´s IRB. Oncologists living in Mexican border states (Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas) were identified from the Mexican Society of Oncology’s directory. Two hundred twenty-five participants were queried via e-mail with a REDCap survey designed by the investigators. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze responses. Results: Sixty-six respondents completed the survey, most of whom were medical (n = 24) or surgical oncologists (n = 24) who had practiced for < 5 years (n = 31). Sixty (90.9%) respondents interacted with US-based patients who traveled to Mexico to receive care, most frequently due to inadequate health insurance (n = 45). Forty-eight (72.7%) respondents interacted with Mexico-based patients who traveled to the US to receive care, most frequently due to patient perception of superior care in the US (n = 38). Table 1 describes the reported reasons patients traveled across the border for cancer care. Twenty-nine (43.9%) respondents interacted with US-based patients who wanted to receive care in Mexico but could not, most frequently due to lack of financial resources (n = 17) or of a support system in Mexico (n = 10). Forty-three (65.2%) respondents interacted with Mexico-based patients who wanted to receive care in the US but could not, most frequently due of lack of financial resources (n = 43) or passport/visa issues (n = 14). Conclusions: According to Mexican oncologists, US-based patients travel to Mexico to receive cancer care primarily due to inadequate health insurance. In contrast, Mexico-based patients travel to the US primarily due to their perception that care in the US is of higher quality and because aspects of their care are unavailable in Mexico. Both US and Mexico-based patients face many barriers to receiving care outside their home country, which should be tackled to improve access to quality care in border region. [Table: see text]

Transnational utilization of diagnostic studies across the US-Mexico border.

e18574 Background: Transnational healthcare utilization between US and Mexico border states is well described for specific medical conditions; however, little is known regarding the trans-border use of diagnostic imaging and invasive studies in cancer care in this region. We aimed at identifying patterns of diagnostic testing use among US- and Mexico-based patients. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was sent to oncologists practicing in Mexican border states (Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora, and Tamaulipas), identified from the Mexican Society of Oncology’s member directory. The survey was administered through REDCap between October and November 2022. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study was approved by the IRB of Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán. Results: Sixty-six respondents completed the survey. Respondents were mostly medical oncologists (n = 24) or surgical oncologists (n = 24). Most reported primarily practicing for < 5 years (46.9%) in both public and private practice settings. Approximately 70% (n = 46) of respondents reported interacting with US-based patients traveling to Mexico to undergo diagnostic imaging studies, the most common of which included CT-scan (82.6%). Fifty-six percent (n = 37) of respondents interacted with patients traveling to Mexico for the purpose of undergoing invasive testing, requiring access via percutaneous puncture or incision, where the most frequently sought test included a biopsy (91.9%, n = 34). Forty percent (n = 26) of respondents interacted with patients from Mexico who travelled to the US for diagnostic imaging, who most frequently sought nuclear imaging studies (80.0%). Approximately 33% of respondents (n = 22) interacted with patients who travelled for diagnostic testing, with next generation sequencing (NGS) the most common study requested (90.9%). See Table. Conclusions: Diagnostic studies play an essential role in the management of cancer. A significant proportion of patients travelling to Mexico for diagnostic tests pursued CT imaging scans and biopsies, which may be due to the lower costs of those procedures in Mexico, even for patients who might have insurance. In contrast, most Mexican patients who traveled to the US for testing pursued nuclear imaging and NGS, perhaps reflecting lack of access and availability. Strategies aimed at improving access to evidence-based diagnostic testing are needed to reduce inequities both in high- and middle-income countries. [Table: see text]

Psychological First Aid–Informed Guidelines for Mental Health Professionals Working With Central American Unaccompanied Minors in Transitional Settings

Abstract. News of unaccompanied minors (UMs) from Central America entering the United States–Mexico border have inundated political and social platforms as policies are discussed to address this crisis. The hope for a future away from violence, poverty, and fear drives these minors into embarking on an uncertain journey to the United States. The dangers these children encounter on their long travels along with previous distressing experiences from their home country put a devastating toll on their psychological and overall well-being. Their anguish continues as these youth are placed in transitional settings (i.e., shelters) while awaiting to be released into their new communities. While psychological care is often available at these settings, the complex realities of these children call for culturally and trauma-responsive guidelines to address their unique psychosocial needs. This conceptual paper reviews existent literature on the mental health needs of Central American youth in the United States–Mexico border as well as relevant theories and principles, such as the evidence-informed psychological first aid (PFA), which has shown to help Central American youth in the immediate aftermath of disasters and other crises. The aim of this manuscript was to adapt and expand on the core elements of PFA and utilize its theoretical basis to (1) enhance the psychological health of Central American UMs in transitional settings and (2) equip mental health professionals working in the United States–Mexican border or other US mental health professionals to address the immediate psychological needs of UMs from a culturally sensitive and trauma-informed approach.