HUIXTLA, Mexico: Mexican border agents and police on Sunday broke up a caravan of hundreds of migrants, the fourth such raid in recent days by caravan officers who had left southern Mexico.
Groups of about 800 largely Central American, Haitian, Venezuelan and Cuban people spent the night on a basketball court near Huixtla, about 40 kilometers (25 mi) across the road from the then border town of Tapachula, where they were met by Mexicans. Was kept waiting for processing. immigration officer.
But shortly before dawn, immigration agents backed by police with anti-riot gear drove into the crowd, pushing many into trucks.
Hundreds of migrants fled running towards a river and hid in the vegetation.
They started hitting me all around,” said a woman in tears, alleging that the police also beat up her husband and dragged one of his daughters by his arms.
I’m not going until they give me my daughter.”
The group was at least the fourth to break up in the past week, after being let out in the North Caravan, frustrated by the slow pace of Ki.
The government has insisted that excessive force against a Haitian migrant caught on camera last weekend was an aberration and suspended two immigration agents.
Mexico has faced immigration pressures from the north, south and within its borders in recent weeks as thousands of migrants crossed its southern border, the United States sent thousands more back from the north and a US court ruled the Biden administration. ordered to be renewed. Policy for asylum seekers to wait longer in Mexico.
President Anders Manuel Lepez Obrador said on Thursday that the strategy to contain migrants in the South was itself untenable and that more investment in the region is needed to prevent Central Americans from leaving their homes.
Thousands of Haitian migrants stranded in Tapachula have increasingly protested in recent weeks. Many have been waiting months, some up to a year, to process asylum requests.
Mexico’s refugee agency has been overwhelmed. So far this year, more than 77,000 people have applied for protected status in Mexico, 55,000 of whom are in Tapachula, where shelters are full.
Unable to work legally and frustrated by delays and poor conditions, hundreds of people have turned north.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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