Migrants filled the streets of Ciudad Juarez, on Mexico's northern border, despite progress and reduced migration promised by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after his meeting on Wednesday with a delegation from the United States.
For the past two weeks, there have been steady groups of dozens of migrants walking all the time with their children on their shoulders or their hands in their hands as they head to Gate 36 of the border wall between Juarez and El Paso in Texas, which, year-round, has been the migration hub between Mexico and the United States. United.
“It's complicated because they don't let us through, and a lot of things go wrong along the way,” said Darryl Sanchez, a migrant from Venezuela who has been stranded for more than five days with nearly a thousand migrants in the town of Ceballos. It is located on the border between the northern states of Durango and Chihuahua.
He added, “The caravans come from Tapachula, Chiapas and from Mexico City and take a different direction, meaning there are a fair number of migrants.”
In an interview near the Rio Grande border, Darrell recalled that agents from the National Migration Institute (INM) arrested them on their way through Mexico and took them off the train in the middle of the desert, with temperatures near zero, without even looking. They were traveling with children.
“We were sleeping in the street, on the ice. I don’t know why they wouldn’t let us pass if we didn’t cause any harm or anything, we just want to pass to ask for a permit or asylum,” he lamented.
Decrease in immigration?
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken led an urgent visit to White House officials on Wednesday in response to the unprecedented rise in illegal immigration in December, with an average of more than 10,000 people arriving daily at the shared border with Mexico, López Obrador acknowledged.
But the Mexican President defended the results of the meeting, stressing that migration is “actually declining” after the unprecedented recovery that prompted the United States to temporarily close crossings in Texas, Arizona and California.
“The most important thing (in the meeting) is that progress has been made and we understand each other, and there are even good results. Of course, it is also about the end of the year, so as not to be too excited, but migration is on the rise,” the president said at his morning conference on Friday. “decreasing.”
In contrast, Maria Eugenia Campos, governor of Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located, announced to the media on Thursday that she expected an additional 3,000 migrants to arrive in the state this week.
Delia Padilla has been in transit for four months since leaving her native Colombia.
This week he arrived in Ciudad Juarez by train and immediately headed to the Rio Grande to try to get through Gate 36.
He added: “It was difficult. I have been on the journey for four months, and thank God we are here. It was not easy. Now we have to wait to see how we can cross over, not to the (American) dream, but.” He said in front of the border tributary, “What God promised to many people and also to me.”
The South American said the journey was long and stormy although they received a lot of help in all the countries they crossed.
“On foot, by train, he often left us abandoned, and often did not move forward. We arrived with the help of many people. I thank the mayor of Jiménez (Chihuaha municipality), we were a large group abandoned in Ceballos and they helped us.”
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