Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 7 december 2019

Mexicans fleeing violence form new encampment on border

By CEDAR ATTANASIO and by migrants them-
Associated Press selves, some of whom have
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico been storming guarded ar-
(AP) — An exodus of mi- eas of the border to force
grants fleeing drug cartel Customs and Border Pro-
violence and corruption tection officers to process
in Mexico has mired hun- them. Many immigrants
dreds of immigrants in ram- have been victims of rob-
shackle tent camps across beries, sexual assaults and
the border from El Paso other crimes carried out by
and brought new chaos cartel gangs.
to a system of wait lists for As night falls on the Juarez
asylum seekers to get into camp, a 16-year-old girl
the U.S. who fled the sexual ad-
Migrant tent camps have vances of a cartel boss in
been growing in size at the violence-plagued city
several border crossings in of Guerrero stops by a row
Ciudad Juarez, driven by of tents with her mother.
a surge in asylum seekers They were deported after
from regions in southern spending about a week in
Mexico gripped by cartel Border Patrol custody. Her
violence. documents say that she
One camp in Juarez is pop- In this Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019 photo, Luis, 38, left, a migrant fleeing gang violence in Michoacan, didn’t pass an initial test for
ulated by about 250 Mexi- sits with his 13-year-old son on a bench in a public park facing a tent camp for refugees in Juarez, asylum called a “Credible
can asylum seekers, who Mexico. Fear Interview.”
are living in increasingly Associated Press “Battles to enter, battles
cold conditions as they to leave,” the teen says,
wait for U.S. authorities to and competing camps his mechanic’s garage af- other countries, the en- listing off the paperwork
let them in to the country. with hundreds of Mexicans ter gangs demanded high- campments and shelters and interviews they had to
They are among thou- at each one as tempera- er and higher monthly fees appear to have little sup- do even after their asylum
sands of immigrants along tures fall below freezing. until he couldn’t make the port outside of pastors and claim was denied.
the border waiting in Mexi- Critics of President Don- payments and they threat- local aid groups on both Her father wants to return
can cities, often for several ald Trump’s immigration ened to kill him. sides of the border. to Guerrero, where they
months at a time under policies have condemned In the two months he’s The first Mexican migrant own their home, but she
daily quotas set by Cus- the wait list system and a lived here in a plastic tent camp in Juarez started at doesn’t want to go back.
toms and Border Protec- separate program, known with his wife and 8-year- the base of a bridge where They agree they’ll prob-
tion officials that govern as Remain in Mexico, that old daughter, they’ve en- shootings, muggings and ably try and work and save
how many people get to has sent tens of thousands dured the fluctuating tem- stabbings are common. in Juarez for a year or so
request asylum at each lo- of migrants back in Mexico peratures of the desert and Many opted for the camp before they make a deci-
cation. as their immigration court inclement weather that in the park because it was sion. That way, she can go
The wait lists are typically cases to play out. ranges from dust storms less dangerous. to high school without wor-
run by local Mexican of- Customs and Border Pro- to rain. A narrow trench In Matamoros, Mexico, rying about getting picked
ficials and organizations in tection officials say they around the tent aims to roughly 700 miles (1,126 up by the mob boss. May-
consultation with the U.S. have no role in operating keep runoff from flooding kilometers) from Ciudad be he’ll forget her.
government, but the Mexi- the lists and are merely the place where his wife Juarez, an estimated 2,000 “That was our tent, but
can immigrants rejected performing “queue man- and daughter sleep. people are waiting in tents now there’s somebody in
the lists in Juarez and opt- agement” at border cross- “In a single week, one lives next to a border bridge. it,” her mother says, point-
ed to organize their own ings based on capacity to through every climate,” he There’s little access to run- ing to an asylum seeker
system at each port of en- process asylum seekers. says. ning water, sanitary living who has her former place
try. Officials in both coun- On Tuesday evening in The immigrant, who asked conditions, or healthcare. in line. “I don’t know where
tries agreed that Mexican Juarez, smoke wafted from his last name not be used, One small nonprofit, Glob- we’re going to sleep.”
immigrants should have wood fires across the sea anticipates staying here al Response Management, The camp sits on the edge
their own waiting list and of blue and black plastic until January, and the tem- started issuing flu vaccines of a towering monument
not one managed by gov- tarps as mothers cobbled peratures are already ap- this week after purchasing to Benito Juarez, the pro-
ernment authorities in Mex- together dinner for their proaching freezing. them from a local pharma- capitalist legal scholar
ico because many of them families. The Mexican government cy at roughly $50 a dose. and president after whom
are fleeing corrupt govern- At the end of the camp, has set up shelters that Some desperate parents the city was named. In the
ment authorities in Mexico. cars filling six lanes of traffic have capacity, but he have sent their children 1850s, he lived in political
“American officials told us honked and jockeyed for can’t go there because alone to the bridge to exile in New Orleans, Luisi-
you know what, we can’t position coming and go- he’ll lose his place in line. Brownsville because the ana, working at a tobacco
deny Mexicans entry. In the ing from The Bridge of The Cities like Juarez have had U.S. government exempts factory. The first Mexican
end it’s the country that Americas, a border cross- to manage growing mi- children deemed “unac- president with indigenous
they’re fleeing,” said En- ing bustling with tractor- grant populations since companied” from being heritage, Juarez became
rique Valenzuela, director trailers, taxis and commut- the start of the Trump ad- rejected under the wait a lawyer and then a judge,
of Ciudad Juarez’s Centro ers. ministration’s efforts to list system or “Remain in advocating for the rule
de Atención a Migrantes. The most common reason push people back and Mexico” program. The par- of law in the 19th century
The latest developments the camp’s occupants flee make them wait south of ents hope their children will and leaving for his children
in Ciudad Juarez appear their homes in Mexico is the the border. eventually be placed with a statement of principles
to be the first time that CBP inability to pay protection Despite a commitment a relative on the other side. quoted in brass letters
has honored multiple lists money to local gangs. A fa- from both the U.S. and The wait lists are being along the white stone of
in a single city, spawning ther from Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexican governments to challenged by immigrant the memorial abutting the
a new level of confusion Michoacan, said he closed safeguard migrants from advocacy groups in courts tent camp.q