Migratory wave subsides in northern Mexico with questioned Government operation

The camps of thousands of migrants in Ciudad Juárez, on the northern border of Mexicohave disappeared after the migration wave in recent months, but activists in the area accuse the Mexican Government of violating the human rights of foreigners with their operations, which include getting them off the train and chasing them.

The edge of the Rio Grande (or Rio Grande in the United States) in Ciudad Juárez, which in the last six months had been the place where more than 1,000 migrants had set up camps, is now empty.

Patrols from the National Migration Institute (INM) of Mexico circulate 24 hours a day all week, to prevent migrants from approaching the border with USA in an operation that includes taking them off the train known as “The beast” before they can reach this border.

Activists questioned these actions of the immigration authorities because they say that taking migrants off the train and running them off the banks of the Rio Grande threatens the human rights of people in transit.

“It is impressive to see how they are injured, without access to medical areas, in those areas where they are taken off the train there is no where they can be treated and many of their rights are being crushed”said Rosa Mani Arias, representative of the pro-immigrant organization Abara.

The activist specified that injured women and children have been found, who need and require medication as soon as possible.

“It is very delicate because we also find that they are not given any type of attention and there is no containment,” indicated the activist.

But Francisco Garduño, head of the INM, has justified in statements to local media that with these actions the integrity of undocumented immigrants is protected and the migration crisis has been stopped.

Without migration strategy

Father Francisco Bueno Guillén, director of the Casa del Migrante in Juárez, acknowledged that these operations have left the edge of the Rio Grande empty, thus preventing people from putting themselves at risk.

But he regretted that there is no underlying strategy to solve all the problems that migration entails.

“We see an empty board, it is full of mobile patrols, both on the Mexican side and on the American side (American), I think that at a certain point it is favorable because it prevents people from exposing themselves to danger,” said.

However, he questioned the fact that there is no plan for the migratory flow.

“For us, the outlook is not clear, caravans have continued to leave every two or three months and many times we do not realize it because these people are not reaching the northern border of the country, many of them are staying in places where we do not know what’s going on”said the person in charge of the largest shelter for migrants from the city.

The Government defends the immigration policy

For his part, Garduño has argued that these operations, which consist of getting migrants off the train and preventing them from camping in the river, keep them safe from crime.

“Fortunately, the operation that you already know on the railroad that you were manning. ‘The Beast’, we have been attending to the patios where they got off.”he told local media.

He added that the presence of migrants in Juárez has decreased greatly in recent days thanks to these operations and the actions of the institute in the south of the country.

He stated that Immigration will maintain a shelter near the City Hall where they have capacity for 500 people, providing food and medical services, to care for those who continue to arrive.

The region faces a migratory flow “without precedents” of Mexico and Central America, as the International Organization for Migration (IOM)which at the beginning of November reported an annual increase of more than 60% in irregular migration that crosses Mexican territory so far this year.