Mexico’s southern border has become a “plug” that prevents migrants from crossing north due to threats from the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, activists and priests in the area denounce.
Mexican authorities send migrants to cities such as Tapachula and Tuxtla Gutiérrez in Chiapas, a state bordering Central America, to Villahermosa in Tabasco, to Mérida in Yucatán, or to Chetumal in Quintana Roo, to disperse them, according to the director of the Center for Human Dignity (CDH), Luis Rey García Villagrán.
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The activist, who usually accompanies migrant caravans, said that the instruction of the Government of Mexico is not to let migrants pass to the Mexican capital.
“The first bottleneck is the Suchiate River (bordering Guatemala), Tapachula, and from there is the Trans-Isthmus Corridor between Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalos, and the third is in Puebla, where a difficult passage is formed by something called the Cortez Pass, because not everyone can get to Mexico City,” he described.
The human rights defender affirmed that “migrants are being put more obstacles to get” to the north, so now they opt for “dangerous routes.”
The first migrant caravan of the year left this Thursday from the southern border of Mexico with about 1,500 members, who seek to reach the United States before the inauguration on January 20 of Trump, who has threatened a 25% tariff on Mexican products if the “invasion” of migrants and drugs is not stopped.
But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reaffirmed that the caravans “no longer reach the northern border” because her government is serving them in the south, where it offers employment, refuge or return to their countries options.
RACE AGAINST TIME
The priest of the San Agustín church in the center of Tapachula, Martín Moreno, fears that with Trump’s arrival this January, legal barriers will increase in southern Mexico for migrants.
“With the election in the United States, people will no longer be allowed to wait for an immigration paper like the ‘CBP One’ (the application from the Customs and Border Protection Office) or to be considered displaced persons who need refuge,” he lamented in an interview with EFE.
Although the daily encounter of undocumented immigrants at the US border fell by 75% in 2024, the Mexican government detected a record of more than 925,000 irregular migrants from January to August, a year-on-year increase of almost 132%.
Given the situation, Moreno warned that “people are not staying” on the southern border.
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“They are leaving without papers in caravans, this week two very large ones left with the aim of trying to cross into the United States before Donald Trump takes power,” said the priest.
In Tapachula he estimated that there are about 30,000 migrants stranded, like the Honduran Wilmer Omar Cortés, who arrived several months ago and lives near the Bicentennial Park, where they have sought the help of the authorities to process papers to regularize themselves and have greater security.
“The government here helps with money to pay rent and food, here we are people waiting for papers because they are in process. There are quite a few, but they have left in caravans, some migrants want to leave because Donald Trump is going to enter, but it is known that they are going to deport those who have crimes,” he told EFE.
Source: revistaeyn
