Dispersed, unhurried and without defined destinations, a caravan of approximately 350 migrants is moving through the eastern part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, after having entered the state of Oaxaca this week, in the south of the country and the second entity on the migratory route after leaving on January 24 from Tapachula, Chiapas, in an initial contingent of 1,500 migrants.
The news that reaches them of the tightening of immigration policies on the Mexico-United States border keeps them in uncertainty and with the hope that the situation will ease for those who wish to enter the United States without documents, but with the faith of finding work.
“I am going step by step, calmly, because I know that this is going to happen. We are waiting for the tide to go out, because I said from the moment I left my house that this was the goal (the United States), but these problems arose and I am hoping to God that everything passes, and we are going with patience, we are not in a hurry,” Esmeralda Castaneda, a migrant from El Salvador, told EFE on Wednesday.
The group of migrants arrived on Wednesday in the municipality of Zanatepec, Oaxaca, after walking 25 kilometers from Tapanatepec on the transisthmian highway with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius.
In Zanatepec, the municipal authority assigned them a piece of land to rest for a night. It is an open space, almost in the open air, but to protect them from the intense sun they put up an improvised roof with a tarp and supported by iron pillars.
“Imagine the place where they come to put you, as if you were an animal, on these roads you arrive super tired from helping your family, the Comar (Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid) is useless, the appointments were stopped, so you risk whatever comes in these places,” said Maritza Escobar, a mother who left her three children in El Salvador, ages 17, 12 and 10, with the promise of working in the United States and building their house.
In Zanatepec, the caravan was helped with purified water and food like tuna and cookies and the open possibility of returning them to their countries of origin if any of them decide not to continue their journey.
Since the last caravans that crossed Oaxaca before the arrival to power of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, on January 20, this is the smallest group that slowly advances along the transisthmian highway, expecting to reach Mexico City and from there continue its way to the states. Mexican border crossings.
Just last Monday, the Mexican government reached an agreement with Trump to pause for a month the imposition of 25% tariffs on Mexican products entering the United States, in exchange for deploying 10,000 agents of the Mexican National Guard (GN) on the border.
The recent agreements between Sheinbaum and Trump seek to combat drug trafficking, especially fentanyl, but also to prevent migration, according to the demands of the American president.
After just over two weeks since Trump returned to the presidency of the United States, uncertainty and fear have taken hold of the migrant community on the border with Mexico. Mass deportations, the cancellation of appointments and the tightening of immigration policies have left thousands of people on hold and without clear answers from the Mexican government.
Source: latinus.us
