Ciudad Juarez (Mexico), September 18 (EFE).- The presence and harassment of Mexican criminals on the border with the United States caused this Monday about 300 migrants to move their camp from the bed of the Rio Grande (Rio Grande in the United States). States) and they will settle in the US territory.
They set up makeshift tents with a razor wire barricade on the ground, while others reached the wall where they made a huge line and set up several roofs with covers and blankets.
“It’s like a waiting camp, not a living camp, as they wait for a certain time at night or when they think they can pass quickly,” Arturo David Guerra Matei, a Venezuelan who has been stuck in Ciudad Juárez for two and a half years. for months, told EFE.
He explained that many of the migrants who were on the riverbed were dispersed to avoid attacks by Mexican gangs and criminals.
In light of the attacks, he said, many other migrants decided to rush across the small channel (two meters wide) of the Rio Grande until they stopped at the barbed wire, where it is already US territory, and they feel that way. It is safer, and some reach the wall.
“Mexican criminals from the same country started throwing stones at them and stealing water, so they dispersed. I think it’s a bit difficult to cross now,” the migrant added.
Based on this scenario, the Venezuelan said that he will wait for his appointment. “It’s more risky to go like this, they’ll take you all day from 3:00 in the morning until noon, you might get dehydrated, and it’s not sure if they’ll let us out.”
Hundreds of migrants camped earlier in the day on the riverbed in front of Gate 28, at the height of the La statue.
They cross every hour
At any given hour, you can see groups of more than 10 migrants leave the camp and go underground and then cross the holes made in the razor wire barricade due to the inability of the Texas National Guard.
They then walk up to the base of the wall, where they form a line starting at Gate 28, where they wait for United States immigration agents to arrest them and take them to a detention center to begin the process.
Throughout this Monday morning, agents from the National Institute of Immigration did not appear at the gate where the migrant camp is concentrated, so the border surveillance was completely in the hands of the United States National Guard.
Faced with the entry of hundreds of migrants caught under razor wire, the National Guard changed its strategy and deployed an agent every hundred meters along the border river, but migrants continued to cross.
Aaron Marin, another Venezuelan who arrived in Ciudad Juárez last week by train and believed the border was safe, decided not to risk it and wait for his appointment through the CBP One application, the official way to legally enter the United States.
“They told us that this is the most secure border, but it doesn’t seem that way. The journey was very difficult, many complications on the way, now there is less to go, but now we have to wait for the appointment to be able to move forward and have a better way,” he said in an interview with EFE. In front of the cathedral, where they are greeted, eat and put in shelters.
“All the shelters are full, at least a little roof to sleep and spend the night.” We’re staying here, we’ll see if there’s any work,” Marin added.
The measure reflects a new migration wave in Mexico, where migration flows from the country to the United States have rebounded after an initial drop last May with the expiration of U.S. Title 42.
Source: El Diario
