U.S. begins returning asylum-seekers to dangerous Mexican state

First 12 people sent to Tamaulipas under Migration Protection Protocols program

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico — When the United States began sending asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico earlier this year as their claims were processed, many regarded the dangerous northeastern state of Tamaulipas as a worst-case scenario.

The State Department warns against all travel to Tamaulipas — the same risk level it has assigned Syria and Afghanistan. Doctors Without Borders reports that 45 percent of its recent patients in this city, among the largest in the state, were migrants who had “suffered at least one episode of violence” while waiting here to cross the U.S. border.

But on Tuesday morning, the United States sent the first 12 migrants back to Tamaulipas under a program known as the Migration Protection Protocols. Mexican authorities dismissed the group from Nuevo Laredo’s immigration office without any transportation or assistance.

“Where do we go?” said José Luis Romero, 31, who had fled Venezuela with his wife and two sons, ages 6 and 8. “We gave away our mattresses.”

The family had waited for three months in Nuevo Laredo before U.S. officials called for them Monday morning and took them across the border to Laredo, Texas. Romero was separated from his wife and children, and immigration officials interviewed the couple separately. The two explained how they had protested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the city of Maracaibo and how security forces had later raided their home.

On Tuesday — after their interviews, without warning — they were shipped back across the border with their children, their next court date scheduled for Sept. 24.

“No one told us they would send us back here to wait,” Romero said.

He and his family dragged their luggage through the streets for a few blocks. It was 97 degrees at 11 a.m. For months, he had tried to keep a low profile here after hearing of other migrants being kidnapped. Now he was left to find a new place to stay. The other returnees — all Cubans — had headed off in a different direction.

“I was told not to talk to anyone because of my accent, not to leave the shelter, because we are targets,” Romero said.

For months, the city’s shelters had been overflowing. Some migrants who left to work or buy food were seized by armed groups. Aaron Mendez Ruiz, who runs a shelter called Amar, said 15 migrants from the facility have been kidnapped this year.