Matamoros, Mexico
The dismantling of the camp in the Mexican border town of Matamoros symbolizes the end of former US President Donald Trump’s brutal immigration policies as dozens of people return to the city to fulfill the American dream.
With the passage of the latest group of asylum seekers to the United States, authorities at the National Institute of Migration and the Matamoros Municipality accelerated the cleanup of the site this Friday, which has been inhabited by Central Americans, Mexicans, and people from other nationalities.
What “thrived” in 2019 as a camp, on the banks of the Rio Grande, under inadequate conditions, was reduced to piles of tents and tons of rubbish estimated to be disposed of in a week.
“It was a very sad, very tragic reality that should never have existed, but it did exist. Now that it has been corrected, we hope that what we have seen here will never happen again,” said the Catholic Charities coordinator in Texas. Valley. EFE told Norma Pimentel.
The irregular settlement, which borders the town of Brownsville, Texas, was the scene of fateful images such as the death of Oscar and Valeria, a migrant father and daughter, who drowned while trying to reach the United States.
On February 12, Joe Biden’s administration announced the reopening on February 19 of the cases of asylum seekers who had returned to Mexico through a program of former President Donald Trump.
Known as the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) or “Remain in Mexico” (Remain in Mexico), this program forced these people to remain in Mexico pending appointment to US immigration courts.
IMMEDIATE FUTURE
More than 2,000 residents were counted in the camp, but with the passage of time and the tightening of the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP in English), many families left the place, while others, tired of the precarious conditions, left homes rented in Matamoros and the number fell to 700 migrants.
After 8 days of beginning the migration of families to the United States, a process that prioritized those from the camp, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported a total of 731 on Friday. asylum seekers. seekers already reunited with their families in the United States.
“The camp is completely closed. Any migrant who is in Mexico and in MPP will continue with the UNHCR process,” Pimentel said.
Some people remained in the area who could not be called by the US government but have to go to the Casa del Migrante to continue the process as the area has been closed by the Mexican authorities.
A MORE CARE
“It is worrying because many groups come from all over to settle in the area with the aim of crossing over to the United States. That is not possible,” said Casa del Migrante representative Juan Antonio Sierra Vargas.
Grupo Beta – agents who escort and assist migrants – met with the migrants who remain outside an unused official building located near the customs border crossing, but the families did not leave the site.
Half a hundred citizens of Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua live crammed into a space facing the difficulties that those who joined the MPP faced two years ago when they were returned from the United States.
“There are no accommodations and we stayed here. We have no food,” said César Moncada, of Honduran descent.
Some activists have already started taking action, such as the Matamoros Resource Center, to set up a shelter and meet the demand that has exploded in recent weeks.
“The camp is being demolished, they are not going to open it and we have no way to get in,” said the migrant who arrived with his wife and two children.