A hundred migrants wandered around on Monday, not knowing what to do, in different places in Acapulco, the Mexican Pacific port that is trying to recover from two devastating hurricanes and where violence is increasing.
After a couple of weeks of walking in a caravan through southern Mexico, immigration authorities offered a group a ride to this city in the state of Guerrero where, according to the foreigners, they would be given a permit to move legally through the country. They received a document, yes, but only to stay in Guerrero, a region with little employment and a lot of violence.
Two weeks after the change of government in the United States, Mexico continues trying to decongest the south of its country — where most migrants enter on their way to the United States — and disperse the foreigners who have accelerated the formation of caravans heading north before Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
The policy of “dispersion and exhaustion” has become the axis of the Mexican government in recent years and in 2024 it managed to substantially reduce the arrivals of migrants at the border with the United States, said Tonatiuh Guillén, a sociologist and former head of the immigration agency.
But, after Trump’s victory, although fewer foreigners are entering, this strategy has been sharpened with the expectation that “if the numbers go down, it would be a favorable argument to reduce the pressures” of the Republican, added Guillén, who left the National Institute of Migration (INM) when Mexico accepted the pressures of the first Trump administration to avoid the imposition of tariffs.
The Mexican authorities let the caravans advance until they are tired and then offer voluntary transfers to cities where “their immigration status is reviewed.” These words from the INM have various meanings and, in at least two episodes, have involved leaving migrants to their fate in Acapulco, a city with high crime rates, without the authorities explaining the reason for their decision.
For Guillén, the only explanation is to make things increasingly difficult for them so that they decide to return to their countries.
“Immigration told us that they were going to give us a permit to freely transit through the country for 10-15 days and that was not the case, they left us completely stranded without being able to leave here, they don’t sell us tickets, they don’t sell us anything,” explained Venezuelan Ender Antonio Castañeda, 28 years old.
Some were given lodging in a church near the Migration offices in Acapulco, but most stayed to sleep on the street, next to the beach, while Mexican tourists finished their Christmas holidays among buildings full of lights and others in ruins, since the destructive passage of Category 5 Hurricane Otis in October 2023.
On Monday, about fifty of them were crowded in front of the Migration headquarters to be told what to do, but no one attended to them.
Castañeda, who had just received money from his family, chose to pay the owner of a passenger van that took him to Mexico City on Monday, the only person he trusted among the many who approached offering transportation and charging up to five times more than normal for the trip.
While other members of their group were looking for alternatives without being able to legally leave the state, in Escuintla, a town in Chiapas, hundreds of 20-day free transit permits were handed out on Sunday to members of the latest caravan who were rushing to catch buses to Mexico City.
That is what Cuban Dayani Sánchez, 33, and her husband did. “We are a little afraid of the insecurity now when we get on the buses, that they will stop us,” said Sánchez, fearful of extortion or that cartels could kidnap them, something common among migrants crossing Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum insists that her strategy implies a “humanitarian” vision of migration and many foreigners celebrate any transfer that involves moving north, despite the fact that many civil organizations have long denounced these transfers to violent areas where migrants are stranded.
Father Leopoldo Morales, the parish priest of a church near the immigration office in Acapulco, shares this concern. He explained that in November two or three immigration buses arrived from the south with entire families. Last weekend two more arrived; this time, all adults. And he is convinced that they will continue to arrive.
Although the city is outside the migration route and they were not prepared to receive them, several priests have coordinated to provide them with water, food or clothing. “We are very attentive to be able to help them, because we know that they are in a very complicated situation, in great need, they come without money,” he explained.
Finding work is not easy. The federal government deployed hundreds of military forces and the National Guard after Otis to guarantee security and reconstruction. The violence did not decrease. The reconstruction was left half-finished. Almost a year later, last September, another storm, John, caused serious flooding.
Some people took advantage of the need for labor to get to the city, said Alberto Quiroz, a bricklayer from central Mexico who moved to Acapulco with his wife with that idea in mind. According to what he said a few weeks ago, the work soon dried up and now they only think about how to get to Tijuana to get to the United States, where they have family.
VIOLENCE INCREASED
With the arrival of Sheinbaum to the presidency of Mexico three months ago, Acapulco continued to be one of the municipalities with the most homicides in the country. Taxi drivers and small businessmen, who spoke anonymously out of fear, said that security is worse than ever with extortion on the rise and that is why part of the reconstruction, that of large investors, has been paralyzed.
Among the migrants, there is a bittersweet taste. Many were grateful to have left Chiapas although they were not clear where they were going, like the Honduran Jorge Neftalí Alvarenga.
“They lied to us to a certain extent,” said Alvarenga, who planned to be sent to the Mexican capital. He said they asked to go to Mexico City or to places where there was work, such as Monterrey, an industrial city in the north where he hopes to go. Now he doesn’t know what to do.
Source: proceso
