Migrants sent back by US dumped in Monterrey, Mexico
1 / 11Immigration Bused From the BorderIn this July 18, 2019 photo, migrants sit in a bus that will take them and other migrants to Moneterrey, from an immigration center in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. In Monterrey they found a city where shelters are already overflowing and it quickly became clear that it would be up to them to make do as best as they could.
In response to a request for comment, the National Immigration Institute, or INM for its initials in Spanish, said in a two-paragraph statement that the agency cooperates with consular authorities and all levels of government to attend to returnees. It said Mexico abides by international law and is working to upgrade shelters and immigration facilities"to improve the conditions in which migrants await their processes in national territory.
Unlike asylum seekers who wait in line for months to file claims in the U.S. and are then sent back, all those taken to Monterrey who spoke with the AP said they had crossed illegally and spent several days in U.S. detention centers before being returned with a court date. Some said they had not asked for asylum but rather to be returned to their home countries, but were told that going to Mexico or continued detention were the only options.
The returnees were met at the crossing by waiting Mexican immigration officials who handed them documents presumably allowing them to work and move about the country. Without further explanation they were then loaded at an immigration station parking lot onto buses with the logos of private companies with charter contracts with the INM.
"They have abandoned us here to get rid of us," said Jazmin Desir, sitting on the floor of the bus terminal surrounded by her four sleeping children. The stylist and her husband, a mechanic, were waiting for relatives to send money for them to get back to Honduras, and they figured it would take two years to pay off the debt they took on to pay their coyote.
"What the United States wants is to get rid of the Central Americans in a legal way, and it does so by handing them those documents," said Aarón Méndez, director of the Amar shelter in Nuevo Laredo.José Martín Carmona, head of Tamaulipas' governmental Institute for Migrants, acknowledged that the state had refused to receive more migrants, saying it lacks resources.
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