MEXICO CITY.- More than 11,000 migrants They are found in camps north of Mexico waiting to be able to legally enter USAthrough mechanisms such as CBP Onewhile another 6,000 are crossing the country on foot in a caravan which left on Sunday from the city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala.
The migrant caravan is the largest that has formed this year.
Also, in Tijuana, -the other side of the border with San Diego, California- around 3,800 migrants are in shelters, as well as in Reynosa, -which borders McAllen, Texas- where 3,200 migrants are in camps, according to reports. responsible for these reception places.
The same situation is recorded in Matamoros, the border between Mexico and the town of Brownsville, Texas, where some 4,000 migrants remain, CNN en Español reported.
Desperate migrants
Gladys Cañas, a member of the non-profit organization Helping them Triunfar, said that migrants “feel desperate” and that although many know that they do not qualify for asylum, they still hope to benefit from the measure.
Enrique Lucero, director of immigration affairs in Tijuana, pointed out that many migrants get tired of waiting and cross the border illegally. Most of the migrants are from Mexico, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela.
The formation of these groups has been constant in recent years due to the slowness of the immigration regulation processes in Tapachula and the lack of decent living and work options so that foreigners can afford to wait for documents in that city.
Since the end of 2021, authorities often choose to let migrants get tired and break up groups by offering them temporary documentation that, in many cases, foreigners use to continue the journey north on their own.
“This is an opportunity for us,” said Venezuelan Eduviges Arias, who was with her daughter and brother who did not remember a Christmas like this, but assured that “it is what we have to do” if they want to get a better life.
Unprecedented figures
The region is experiencing an unprecedented migratory flow that has not been controlled despite the United States’ attempts to open new channels to emigrate legally while toughening the consequences of doing so irregularly. Although points were installed to process asylum applications in South America or Central America, many migrants say they are unaware of these procedures and that is why they embark on the migratory route.
More than half a million migrants, many of them Venezuelans, crossed the Darién jungle this year, on the border between Colombia and Panama. Mexico detected more than 680,000 foreigners in an irregular situation from January to November, all according to official figures. In addition, a record number of almost 137,000 people requested refuge in this country.
The situation worsened in December on the border between Mexico and the United States when US authorities recorded on some days more than 10,000 illegal crossings daily, a totally unusual figure that caused temporary closures at some crossings.
On Wednesday, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the White House National Security Advisor, Liz Sherwood-Randall, are scheduled to arrive in Mexico to agree on new immigration measures with the Mexican president. Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
López Obrador acknowledged that Americans want Mexico to do more to block migrants to the south, on the border with Guatemala, and to make their passage through the country more difficult, but he said it is not just about containment but also about increasing cooperation at the border. development and solving “political problems” in countries like Cuba or Venezuela that encourage migration.
Source: EDITORIAL / With information from CNN en Español / AP
