Migrants insist on crossing the Rio Grande into the United States despite increasing deportations

Despite the increasing deportations and operations of USA and Mexico, migrants on the border of the Mexican Ciudad Juárez with the American El Paso insist on crossing the Rio Grande (or Grande) border irregularly.

The situation escalated because last week the US authorities expelled 200 migrants who crossed through gate 40 of the border wall and handed them over to the National Migration Institute (INM) Mexican in Ciudad Juárez, where he warned that they would return to Chiapas, a state on the southern border of Mexico.

The Venezuelan Marco Galindo considered “very frustrating” restart your route.

“It’s as if it were a failure, everyone is looking for the dream of going to the United States and since we are here, that war they wage on us from Tapachula (city on the southern border) makes life impossible. Those from Immigration, the National Guard, they chase us everywhere (they chase us)“Galindo told EFE.

The South American pointed out that among those who are stranded in the Rio Grande there is now fear about whether to cross or not, because while in USA The Texas National Guard beats them back, in Mexico The INM agents would return them to Chiapas in a bus with their hands tied.

He also said that many of them have been in Juárez for more than five months, where in addition to obtaining resources they have to face organized crime, and every day they travel about 10 kilometers along the border to see where to pass.

“Looking for the solution of entering, but now with the fact that I have entered three times and they have kicked me out three times (I don’t know). But thank God they haven’t sent me to Tapachula, they take me out right there”, he stated.

A reflection of more restrictions

What is happening in Ciudad Juárez reflects the growing restrictions at the United States border, where on May 9 the Government of Joe Biden enacted a rule that instructs immigration agents to prohibit people considered a “risk to public or national security” apply for asylum.

Biden and the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, agreed at the end of April “work together to immediately implement concrete measures to significantly reduce irregular border crossings while protecting human rights”.

In the first quarter of 2024 alone, irregular migration intercepted by the Mexican Government grew by nearly 200% annually to almost 360,000 people.

José Luna Ochoa, a migrant from Venezuela who stationed himself on the Rio Grande waiting to cross, attributed the operations to the fact that this year the elections in the United States and Mexico coincide.

“As the elections come, they have tightened the laws for immigrants, to be able to get there, we are going to cross as we can in a good way and with the will of God“, held.

He added that, in addition to the climate, they deal with the insecurity that it represents Mexicoboth due to the persecution of the immigration authorities and the kidnappings of organized crime.

“Yes, it is worth it, we want to give our children a better future, since in our country there is no education, there is no security, there is no health, we are in a dictatorship, a salary is 7 dollars a month and 2 dollars is worth a kilo of flour to make some arepas“said the migrant.

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