900 asylum seekers returned to wait in Mexican border city
MATAMOROS, Mexico — The United States government has sent about 900 mostly Central American and Cuban migrants back to this northern Mexico border city since expanding its controversial “remain in Mexico” program to the easternmost point on the shared border two weeks ago, Mexican authorities say.
They are among nearly 3,000 people with pending U.S. immigration proceedings who have been sent back to wait in Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, where the U.S. State Department warns Americans to avoid all travel due to high levels of violence and kidnapping.
Under the program, migrants who turn themselves over to U.S. authorities and, in most cases, request asylum, are returned to Mexico after being given a court date. To pursue their asylum cases they have to wait in Mexico, crossing only for court dates in what is a months-long process.
The program began in January at Tijuana, across from San Diego, and the U.S. government has been expanding it eastward along the border, seeing it as an effective deterrent to the flood of migrants. U.S. authorities began returning migrants at the Tamaulipas city of Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Laredo, Texas, in early July and a few days later added Matamoros, across from Brownsville.
So far more than 20,000 migrants have been returned all along the border to wait in Mexico, Mexican officials say.
On Thursday, some 70 migrants walked sullenly with their heads down across the international bridge into Matamoros. They carried their documents in transparent plastic bags and expressed concerns about how they would wait out the process in a state known for powerful organized crime gangs.
“Donald Trump is just returning everyone,” said Emilio Cáceres, a 25-yearold Honduran farmer who said he planned go home rather than wait. Cáceres said he previously was deported from the U.S. and therefore did not envisage a successful asylum application even though he was given a hearing date.
More than 100 more returned Friday.
Earlier in the week, Luis Raxic of Guatemala was returned to Matamoros with his wife and 1 1/2year-old daughter. He had similar thoughts of giving up and going home because he did not want to expose his daughter to the danger of waiting here.
“One of the agents told us very clearly that they were going to deport us, but only to Mexico and not to our country to save money,” Raxic said. “It’s a strategy to make us scared and so we’ll go back.”
The U.S. is sending back groups of 50 to 100 migrants almost daily to Matamoros, the Tamaulipas state immigration office says.
Mexico began busing some of the returned migrants out of Tamaulipas to the city of Monterrey in neighboring Nuevo Leon state last month. Authorities said it was for their safety, but many were dropped off in that unfamiliar city in the middle of the night. It was unclear how they would return to the border for their court dates.
Raxic waited for the bus to Monterrey, saying from there his family would look for a way back to Guatemala.
Sensing the danger or already knowing Tamaulipas’ reputation, some migrants quickly disperse upon reaching Matamoros in search of lodging and are not seen in the streets. Others choose to stay near the downtown bridge where police and National Guard are present. Some have yet to cross over to the U.S. to file asylum applications and are waiting to be called from a list of more than 1,000 names. Others have recently been returned and are awaiting court dates.