Fear spreads among migrants stranded on the northern border of Mexico after the agreement between the United States and the Mexican Government, which was agreed in Ciudad Juárez to deport undocumented immigrants to their countries of origin to depressurize the border in the face of the new wave of migration.
“I cannot return to my country because I was a soldier and I am politically persecuted, I have an arrest warrant, I cannot set foot on my land, because if you are not with the Government you are against it,” José Rendón, told EFE. who left Peru a month and a half ago and is now waiting in Ciudad Juárez, on the border of Mexico with Texas.
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Fear has grown since last Friday, when officials from the Government of Mexico met at this border with the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who will now deliver migrants deported at the International Bridge to Mexico. from Ciudad Juárez.
The Mexican National Migration Institute (INM) announced in a statement its commitment to “carry out the arrangements with the governments of Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia and Cuba to receive their compatriots” and “continue with the mirror operation on the border of Mexico and the United States.”
This means a greater risk of deportation for migrants like Rendón, who passed through eight countries to reach this camp of about 700 people who have been waiting for four days to cross at gate 36 of the border wall between Juárez and El Paso.
Venezuelan Shanom Méndez agrees with this, who remains in Mexico about 50 meters from the United States.
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“It hits us like a bucket of cold water. It’s horrible, it’s terrible news after so much sacrifice, more than two months of travel, almost losing your life in the jungle, and right now they tell us that. It’s hard. We passed through Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, we have crossed all of those countries,” he explained.
Mexico’s new wave of migration stampedes on the southern border.
“The issue of migrants is being taken care of,” said this Monday the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who will convene foreign ministers from 10 countries that expel migrants to make a proposal on the issue to the US president, Joe Biden, in a possible meeting in November.
So far, Mexican authorities have not initiated operations to detain migrants, and are only keeping them away from some areas of the Rio Grande, which Mexico shares with the United States.
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Nor have they rehabilitated any stations to retain the more than 8,000 migrants in the city, according to estimates by local organizations.
The migrant wave accelerated after Washington announced Mexico’s commitment last July to install a migrant processing center on its southern border so that they can begin their process to legally enter the United States.
In a matter of weeks, the shelters in Ciudad Juárez went from an average of 1,600 migrants to a total capacity of almost 3,000, while many more were left on the streets, where they have found the solidarity of Mexicans displaced by violence or poverty.
“Since they leave home and separate from their families, the goal (of the migrants) is to grow, and (now) find themselves with the news that they are going to be deported to their country. Despite everything they went through, I think it is unfair,” said José Luis, a Mexican who is also trying to cross into the United States.
EFE
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