Migrant flow through Mexico to the United States

2023-12-28 17:45:13, Kosova & Bota CNA

Mexican and US officials agreed to keep border crossings open, the Mexican president said Thursday after several key rail crossings were temporarily closed due to high numbers of migrants arriving at the Mexico-US border.

The agreement, according to President Lopez Obrador, was reached during today's meeting between the American delegation led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Mexican President in the capital of Mexico. The United States is pressuring Mexico to stop the flow of tens of thousands of migrants who are continuing their journey from Central and South American countries to the United States through Mexico.

Thousands of migrants aiming to reach the United States spent Christmas walking toward the US-Mexico border. Mainly from Central and South America, they had been gathering for months in Tapachula, a city in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. This was the starting point for the caravan's journey north.

"There are children and women here with leg injuries, dehydrated. It's hard to ask for the American dream... What we ask is that the government at least gives us permission to cross," says Rosa Alegria, a migrant from El Salvador.

The convoy left just days before the meeting that was held today in the Mexican capital between the American delegation led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Lopez Obrador.

Mr. Lopez Obrador announced that during the meeting an agreement was reached on the reopening of the US-Mexico border, which was closed in order to prevent the high flow of migrants to the United States.

President Lopez Obrador said Wednesday's meetings with the US delegation were "direct" because of the importance of border trade for both countries.

Since Tuesday, Mexican authorities have begun removing camps that migrants have built near the US border.

During the meeting, the Mexican president is reported to have requested that Washington send more aid aimed at developing the countries of origin of migrants and improving relations between the US and Cuba and Venezuela, which are two of the main sources of migrants.

"We are very interested in addressing the causes of migration, because people come because of poverty, inequality, violence, family reunification, and we want to address their problems in their countries of origin," Mexico's Foreign Minister said this week. , Alicia Barcena.

The meeting was a new effort by the two countries to limit the flow of migrants to the US through Mexico after deporting some of them failed to stem the flow.

According to the authorities of the southeastern Mexican state, Chiapas, about 10,000 migrants, including children, are in the caravan that is continuing its journey. Migrants say they have no money to pay visas or pay human traffickers.

“I have not a penny ... and no one has given me a morsel of food, but I am determined. I will not give up until I reach the border," says Alejandrina Corzo, an immigrant from Honduras.

Reaching the Mexico-US border, however, does not ease the perils of the long migrant journey. Images were released days ago of a woman holding a child submerged in the Rio Grande River as Texas National Guard soldiers on a boat floated by for help.

In December alone, about 10,000 immigrants were arrested every day at the southwest border of the United States./ VOA