Immigrants fleeing Texas repression feel trapped in Mexico

The 35-year-old father measured his options: he could return to the U.S., he could return to Haiti, or he could stay in Mexico with the authorities closed around him and other immigrants.

Wood, who declined to give his full name for speaking out of fear of revenge in the U.S. or Mexico, said he had no plans but had to create one if he wanted to take care of his wife and two daughters.

“I would like to stay here in Mexico, but I’m afraid I’m not allowed to be here,” Wood told BuzzFeed News. “But the US can deport us. I don’t know what to do.”

Like hundreds of immigrants who have left the Del Rio (Texas) camp, the walls are being closed this week in order to avoid planes to Haiti, this time on the Mexican border. Immigration agents, armed soldiers and police on the side, carried out attacks day and night on the streets of Ciudad Acuña, where immigrants are being arrested and flown to southern Mexican states. In recent days, immigrants have roamed the precarious Rio Grande, moving to whatever seemed to be the friendliest part of the border.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, Mexican immigration agents entered the camp alongside local police and the National Guard. Immigrants, mostly Haitians, who lived in a park in Ciudad Acuña, were shocked. The presence of Mexican authorities was enough to bring some of them back to the U.S. border, where they were abandoned by the Biden administration after hundreds of immigrants began returning to Haiti. No one was arrested in the park, but there was a threat.

The Biden administration has moved thousands of immigrants from the Del Rio area to other border areas for processing or removal to the country. It is largely based on the policy of Title 42, which cites a pandemic to allow border agents to return asylum seekers quickly, clearing the Del Rio camp of thousands of haiti. Within days, the U.S. took nearly 2,000 immigrants to Haiti. On Friday, more flights were expected to the country, a country struggling after an earthquake and the assassination of the president.

On Friday, Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the camp under the Del Rio International Bridge had been cleared and no migrants were left. Since Sept. 9, nearly 30,000 immigrants have been found in Del Rio, Mayorkas said. Another 8,000 returned voluntarily to Mexico, and another 5,000 were awaiting processing, meaning they will be deported or have the opportunity to continue in the country.

Mayorkas added that they would hear cases from more than 12,000 immigrants who entered the U.S..

He maintained an immigration policy that it was necessary to use Title 42 and that it was a pandemic and not. He also stated that the policy allowed for exceptions.

On Thursday, a Mexican immigration agent, who only gave his last name to BuzzFeed News, said Rodriguez, along with the National Guard and local police, appeared in Ciudad Acuña Park before dawn and scared immigrants because the U.S. was waking up. They were worried that the Del Rio operation, and people trying to return to Mexico, would drown.

But being in the early hours of the morning had the opposite effect on some of the immigrants who crossed the Rio Grande into Del Rio, Texas. Mexican authorities soon blocked access, cutting off the yellow rope used by immigrants to cross the river.

Although many Haitians initially left their homes to go to Brazil or Chile 7.2 magnitude earthquake, immigration policies in these countries have been more restrictive over the past five years, according to a 2021 report. report About the migration of women from Haiti. Reports released by the Hastings College of Law Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California led to tougher restrictions that led many Haitians to move to Mexico.

One of them was Wood, whose 12-year-old daughter fainted from dehydration last week at a campground in Del Rio.

“If you go out on the streets of Haiti, you have to pray to come back,” he said.

Wood emigrated with his family to Chile, and tried to make a living, but without legal status there, it was difficult to get a good job.

He has thought about returning to Chile, but that would have to travel through Darién Gap, through the jungle of UNICEF. describes as well as one of the most dangerous routes in the world. It was the most difficult part of the trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, Wood said, adding that criminals are violently stealing immigrants from the region and raping women.

“It’s something you go through once in your life, not twice,” he said.

While Wood was sleeping with his family at the camp, Rodriguez, an immigration agent, said authorities had set up a shelter in Ciudad Acuña for those who wanted to leave the park where they were camping. He said immigrants could also continue. The process of applying for refugees with the Mexican Refugee Assistance Commission, but they should do so in the city of Tapachula in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

But Tapachula is a prison city for immigrants who have no documentation to leave the state or a work permit. If they try to get away with smuggling thousands of dollars, they will have to deal with National Guard troops. There have also been violent clashes over the years between immigrants trying to flee and Mexican authorities, under pressure from U.S. officials, who are trying to prevent them from moving north. Last month, Mexican officials condemned the “inappropriate” actions of their agents after a violent clash with immigrants in Tapachula.

When Rodriguez told a group of immigrants that they would have to return to Tapachula if they hoped to end the refugee process, they collectively moaned and protested that they knew what was waiting there.

Diana, a 30-year-old Colombian, said she sold water in Tapachula in an attempt to cover a rent of about $ 200, but it was difficult. It has taken months to wait for the refugee process to complete, and they have to find a way to live without a work permit all the time.

“How do you expect him to survive?” Diana asked Rodriguez. “We have nothing, and then we try to get away and the National Guard beats us.”