His wife tried to explain that his family had permission to go to the United States. Instead, she was flown to Mexico’s southern border, part of an increase in controls that U.S. authorities say has contributed to a sharp decline in illegal crossings. USA.
In addition to forcing migrants off trains, Mexico resumed flights and buses to the southern part of the country and began returning some to their native Venezuela.
Although temporary, the reduction in illegal entries is good news for the White House. Joe Biden’s government is blocked in its talks with the Senate on asylum restrictions, and $110 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel is at stake.
Bermudez said his wife was separated from the family when she spoke with authorities while he gathered his stepson and his belongings. He wanted to run, but his wife said they shouldn’t because they had followed procedure in setting up an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities.
“I tell you, don’t trust them, we are going to walk into the mountains,” Bermúdez said. “Everyone went into the mountains.”
“Then she tells me, ‘well, but why are we going to run if we have the approved appointment?’” he added.
Last week, Bermúdez, her stepson and two other relatives were waiting for her at a shelter in the Mexican border city of Piedras Negras while she took a bus, hoping to arrive in time for her appointment.
The Mexican immigration agency sent at least 22 flights from the U.S. border region to southern cities during the last 10 days of December, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that monitors flight data. Most left Piedras Negras, which is on the other side of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Mexico also made two flights to return 329 migrants to Venezuela. That period was marked by the visit of the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to Mexico City on December 28 to address unprecedented numbers of crossings into the United States.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said a financial shortfall that led the immigration agency to suspend deportations and other operations had been resolved. He did not give further details.
Arrests for illegal entry into the United States from Mexico fell to 2,500 on Monday, down from more than 10,000 on several days in December, according to U.S. authorities. In the Border Patrol’s busiest area, apprehensions reached 13,800 during the seven-day period ending Friday, down 29% from 19,400 two weeks earlier, according to Tucson, Arizona, sector chief John Modlin. .
The decline prompted Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to reopen the Lukeville, Arizona, entry point on Thursday after a month of closing the most direct route from Phoenix to its nearest beaches. . The United States also resumed operations at Eagle Pass and three other points.
Merchants in Eagle Pass, a city of about 30,000 people, said sales had taken a “huge hit” during the closure of the bridge to vehicle traffic so border agents could be reassigned to help process migrants, the judge said. county Maverick Ramsey English Cantu.
“We survive basically because of everything that comes from the Mexican side,” he said.
CBP resumed freight traffic at Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, last month after a five-day halt that U.S. authorities said was a response to up to 1,000 migrants boarding a single freight train to cross Mexico before trying to cross the border on foot.
On Thursday in Piedras Negras, the Migrant House was housing about 200 people, compared to a peak of 1,500 recently.
Among them was Manuel Rodríguez, 40, who said that his family would not arrive at his appointment to request asylum, scheduled by the United States government’s CBP One app. The appointment was recorded with his in-laws, who were deported to Venezuela after authorities boarded the bus they were traveling on.
The appointment was in the name of his mother-in-law, he noted, “and she lost everything.”
The proposals being discussed by the White House and Senate negotiators include a new removal authority that would deny the right to seek asylum if border crossings exceed a certain number. Any such authority would almost certainly depend on Mexico’s willingness to receive non-Mexican migrants who enter the United States illegally, something it now does on a limited basis.
Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, DC, asked that Mexico’s role in the recent decline in trafficking not be exaggerated. Panama reported that fewer than 25,000 people had passed through the Darien jungle in December, about half the October numbers and an indication that there were fewer people leaving South America for the United States. Migration usually decreases in December due to the holidays and winter weather.
“The United States may depend on Mexico for a short-term effect of controlling migration at the border, but the long-term effects are not always clear,” Selee said.
Source: AP
