USA TODAY International Edition
‘They killed my mother ... father’
Central American migrants brave risks
SALTILLO, Mexico – Gunmen came for Alex Morales in 2017, giving him a stark choice: Deal drugs or die. He tried running that night from his home in Guatemala and was shot in the stomach and left leg.
After he recovered, Morales, 27, abandoned his bakery business and fled. He filed for asylum in the USA but was rejected. He returned home to find his three brothers dealing drugs.
“They’re scared they’ll be killed,” he said.
“When I turned them down, they killed my mother, killed my father,” Morales said last weekend from a migrant shelter in Saltillo, 190 miles southwest of Laredo, Texas, on the U.S. border. So he headed north again this year. Immigrants such as Morales increasingly are abandoning Central America, leaving behind poverty and violence in attempts to reach the United States despite stricter enforcement along the border. Many also file asylum claims to stay in Mexico.
The Saltillo shelter and another one 65 miles east in Monterrey are the last stops for these people before reaching the U.S. border. The final push is so dangerous that immigrants on buses or walking along railway lines risk being kidnapped by drug cartels who demand ransoms from their families.
Despite President Donald Trump’s order to stay put and the risk of immigration officials separating families at the border, Central Americans continue streaming through Mexico – treks Trump compared to “walking through Central Park” but rife with the prospect of kidnapping, extortion and rape.
Mexico detains and deports tens of thousands of Central Americans each year, contrary to Trump’s comments that Mexico does little to stop them. Last year, the Mexican government deported 77,371 people from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, according to the Interior Ministry.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained 40,344 people on the southwest border in May, a 58 percent increase since October, the start of the fiscal year. The detentions included 9,485 families, nearly double the figure from October. Guatemalans made up the largest number of detainees.
“The numbers have continued (rising), regardless of the policies in the United States,” said Rick Jones with Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador. “They’re leaving based on the conditions here in the northern triangle of Central America: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, (which) continue to be among the five most violent countries in the world.”
Jones said the motives for leaving fall into three broad categories: violence, lack of opportunities and family reunification.
Many Central American immigrants at the shelters in Saltillo and Monterrey spoke about extortion threats and forced gang recruitment, as well as being unable to make a living at home. Those from Honduras mentioned political problems after last fall’s disputed election and a government crackdown on opponents.
Rodolfo Argueta left Honduras this year after he and his wife lost their teaching jobs in what he called a “purge” for supporting the opposition. “They’re hiring people from their own party,” he said.
Some immigrants spoke of seeking asylum, even though some said they were not directly affected by violence in their home countries.
Edwin Alvarado, 16, of Honduras, who comes from a family of poor coffeepickers, planned to tell immigration officials that he’s a minor, hoping that will allow him to stay in the USA.
“I understand that they’re giving asylum to people from Guerrero” state in Mexico, said Ramiro Gallardo, 34, a farmhand who said he was kidnapped several years ago in the country’s heroin-producing heartland.
Many were unfazed by Trump’s tough talk and policies. They described their difficult trips through Mexico that involved stealing rides atop trains, being forced off by police or railway security and being robbed of their few possessions.
“The only thing (Trump’s) doing is raising the cost of crossing the border,” said Esdras Corios, 33, a Guatemalan trying to return to Georgia, where he worked as a dishwasher for four years. Corios, who has a daughter, was deported last year for driving without a license.
Immigrants at the Saltillo and Monterrey shelters often wait for relatives in the USA to send money, or they work odd jobs in Mexico to pay smugglers, also called coyotes, to take them on the last leg to the Texas border through the violent state of Tamaulipas.
Despite President Donald Trump’s order to stay put and the risk of their families being separated at the border, Central Americans continue streaming through Mexico.