TAPACHULA (Mexico), June 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A determined clutch of
Haitians and Africans have set up an impromptu village outside the Century XXI migrant detention center in southern Mexico, hoping to defy the worsening odds and reach the United States.
Sleeping on the ground or in dirt-cheap hotel rooms, selling manicures,
metalwork and home-made food to get by, these several dozen migrants — once a tiny drop in the sea of mostly Central American travelers trekking north — suddenly stand out in the border town of Tapachula.
Under pressure from US President Donald Trump, Mexico has deployed
thousands of National Guardsmen to reinforce its southern border, and
launched a crack down on undocumented migration.
That has caused Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran migrants — who swarmed this town in massive caravans just months ago — to virtually disappear from sight, hiding out on remote routes or bidding their time south of the border.
But that is not an option for the Haitians and Africans, who crossed an
ocean to get here and who typically speak too little Spanish to strike out on
their own through the countryside.
Still, they are not giving up on their American dream.
“The United States is helping the Congo, they know the Congo is at war,”
said Moises Bumba, 33, explaining his dogged hope of reaching the US and
requesting asylum from the conflict racking his country, the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
He arrived here in March with his wife and son, after a six-month journey
overland from Brazil. With little money and no sign they will get visas soon,
they are sleeping on the street.
Inside the detention center, hundreds of migrants are waiting to be
deported.
There have been numerous riots both here and at another detention center
nearby called the Mesoamerican Fair. There, hundreds of Haitian, African and Asian migrants staged a massive protest Tuesday, demanding to be let out.
“Freedom! Freedom!” they shouted.
Authorities have not allowed journalists access to the detention centers,
but reports abound of squalid conditions, overcrowding and abuse.
The head of the Mexican migration authority, Francisco Garduno, said this
week the government would end its policy of giving African migrants “regional visas” that allowed them to remain temporarily in southern Mexico.
Too many migrants were violating the visas and traveling north to the US-
Mexican border, he said.
Outside the detention centers, others simply wait, sorting through the red
tape of the Mexican migration system in hopes of getting papers that allow
them to continue their journey. — NNN-AGENCIES
