Mexico's Strategy: Bussing Migrants Back Until they Give Up
Migrants complain about INM strategy designed to "wear them down"
La Jornada
To reach the northern states, migrants not only have to cross 3,000 to 4,000 km. from the southern border, but many have to make this journey two or three times. The National Institute of Migration (INM), as part of its "wearing-down" strategy, returns them to Tapachula, Chiapas, or Villahermosa, Tabasco. This has been the experience of migrants staying in the unpermitted camps of Mexico City.
This is the case of Mariana, a Venezuelan, who is staying in the Plaza de la Soledad settlement in the La Merced neighborhood. She said that last July she arrived in Mexico with her partner and two girls hoping to get a CBP One appointment to enter the U.S.. Not only has she not been able to get an appointment, but the INM has detained her twice, returning the family to Villahermosa.
The Venezuelan said that the last time they were captured they were traveling on a freight train through Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. They encountered immigration agents in Samalayuca.
“We got off and ran, but one of them caught up with me. I begged him to let us go, that we had two girls, and he responded: ‘you had a chance to escape, but I caught you; this time I won.’ ”
She said that once in Villahermosa, they keep the families in shelters for a few days, where they receive food, but the INM “leaves the men and women who travel alone to their own devices.”
Outside her shack, a small room made of scraps of plywood for which the family paid 2,000 pesos, she said that the returns made by the INM mean more money for foreigners, going back the same way and facing the dangers of the route: kidnappings, robberies and extortion.
She said that in light of the threats of Donald Trump, the actions of the INM generate more “desperation and fear,” since many migrants are trying to cross the border before January 20, when the Republican’s term begins.
"We have already decided to go by train again; we do not want to spend Christmas here. If the CBP One appointment doesn’t work out, we will turn ourselves in. We’ll see what happens!” she said.
Rosa, a Honduran, also travels with two children and a sister. She said that the first time she tried to reach the northern border, the INM stopped her and sent her back to Veracruz.
“We got to Arriaga (Chiapas) walking day and night in a caravan. Then we advanced alone to Samalayuca, Chihuahua. There we went in a taxi, but it seems that they sold us out.”
Once detained, “they left us without communication, they took us back to Coatzacoalcos (Veracruz). It was four days on a bus with little food.”
She commented that she already got the CBP One appointment, so next Wednesday she will leave for Matamoros, Tamaulipas, to enter through the port of Brownsville, Texas.
“My fear now is kidnappings, although I am in God’s hands. We know that there are a lot of those up [north],” she said.
In Mexico City there are four unpermitted migrant camps, with at least 4,000 people, according to estimates by the government. Most of them are waiting for a CBP One appointment to request asylum in the United States.
When I went to Morocco, I needed my passport, other information and vaccines for entering the country. If I wanted to become a resident of the country, I had to learn the language in one year and, of course, permission.
Why should the USA have an unlimited flood of illegal immigrants, many convicts, enter the country? We have critical need inside of our nation, especially because billions are giving to other countries whose main income is from human trafficking.
They are desperate, bred into them over decades of abuse by government. Is there no compassion or resolution for their dilemma except escape. Self sufficiency love understanding by the world. I don’t know the full story but an infection eventually creates pus and explosion.