TENOSIQUE, Mexico (AP) – In the first Mexican shelter for migrants after hiking in the jungles of Guatemala, about 150 migrants sleep in their homes, and another 150 are on thin mattresses scattered on the floor of his chapel.
At just six weeks a year, the shelter known as “The 72” hosted nearly 1,500 migrants, compared to 3,000 last year. He halved his bedroom space due to the pandemic. That was not a problem last year, as few migrants arrived, but this year it was overwhelmed.
“We have an extraordinary flow and no capacity,” said Gabriel Romero, the priest who runs the shelter in Tenosique, a town in southern Tabasco. “The situation could get out of hand. We need a dialogue with all the authorities before this becomes chaos. ” In particular, he would like the government to provide assistance to migrants who camp outside while they are full.
Migrants from Latin America – the Caribbean, South America and Central America – are on the move again. After a year of pandemic-induced paralysis, those who have daily contact with migrants believe that the flow north could return to the high levels observed in late 2018 and early 2019. The difference is that it would happen during a pandemic.
The health protection measures imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, including the drastically reduced bed space in shelters along the route, mean less safe spaces for migrants in transit.
“The flow is growing and the problem is that there is less capacity than before to meet their needs,” because of the pandemic, said Sergio Martin, head of the non-governmental aid group Doctors Without Borders in Mexico.
Some shelters remain closed by local health authorities and almost all have been forced to reduce the number of migrants they can help. Visa applications, asylum or any other official documents are delayed by the government’s reduced capacity due to the pandemic to process them.
“This is not a post-COVID migration; it is a migration in the midst of the pandemic, making it all the more vulnerable, ”said Ruben Figueroa, an activist for the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement.
Some migrants expressed hope for a friendlier reception from the new US administration or began to move when some borders were reopened. Others are being driven by two major hurricanes that devastated Central America in November, and despair has been deepened by the economic impact of the pandemic.
Olga Rodríguez, 27, had been leaving Honduras with her husband and four children, ages 3 to 8, after Hurricane Eta flooded the street vendors’ house. They arrived in Mexico and applied for asylum, but said it would take six months. Forced to sleep on the street, they changed their plans.
“The children suffered from the cold, we got wet and told my husband if we would be cold and rainy, we’d better go,” she said from Coatzacoalcos. Now their goal is the United States.
President Joe Biden’s administration has taken steps to withdraw some of former President Donald Trump’s harshest policies, but one policy remains to allow U.S. border officials to immediately send back almost anyone because of the pandemic. The US government is concerned that the more hopeful message could trigger a rush to the border and says it will take a long time to implement new policies.
The number of people detained at the US-Mexico border in January was more than double compared to the same month last year and 20,000 over January 2019. This week, families were seen crossing from Ciudad Juarez and surrendering to the Border Patrol in hope that seeking asylum.
“Wait in your country or, if you’re in Mexico, wait,” until you can be sure you can cross legally, said Roberta Jacobson, the White House’s top border adviser.
Last week, the Biden administration announced that it would slowly begin prosecuting the approximately 25,000 asylum seekers who were forced to wait for their trial in Mexico under Trump’s leadership. It was scheduled to begin Friday at three border crossings.
Mexico has so far said it will continue to implement “orderly” migration, which in practice has meant trying to detain migrants from the south since Trump threatened tariffs on all Mexican imports in 2019.
On Tuesday, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said in a statement that authorities had carried out 50 raids on freight train lines since January 25 in southern and central Mexico, detaining nearly 1,200 migrants.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recently warned migrants not to be fooled by traffickers who promise the US will open its doors.
Isabel Chávez, one of the nuns working at the Palenque migrant shelter, about 100 kilometers from Tenosique, said she needs to reduce the number of days migrants can stay there to a maximum of two because of the “avalanche” of migrants who have arrived in January. It would be up to 220 migrants, compared to the 100 it would see before the pandemic began in March 2020, she said.
In Tapachula, the largest Mexican city near its border with Guatemala and home to Mexico’s largest detention center, there are also signs of growth. “There are more people seeking refuge and the increase in the number of migrants is evident in the city’s public spaces,” said Enrique Vidal Olascoaga, a lawyer for the non-governmental organization Fray Matías de Córdova, which helps migrants with legal procedures.
César Augusto Cañaveral, the director of the Good Shepherd shelter in Tapachula, complained that he had to close the shelter’s doors after it was filled at the end of January.
“Now we take the food out on the street and some sleep outside,” but this has worried the shelter’s neighbors, who are worried about the risk of COVID-19 infections. “This will be more complicated than (the wave of migrants from) 2018, because the cherry on top is COVID-19,” he said.
Now, more than 1,300 miles to the southeast, about 1,500 migrants scattered in various camps in Panama plan to reach Tapachula, either as a temporary stop on the way to the U.S. border or to begin the asylum process in Mexico.
Panama reopened its border in late January and since then, groups have emerged from the dense Darien jungle that divides Panama and Colombia. The government transferred them to other camps closer to the Costa Rican border to make room for newcomers.
Last week, Guatemalan immigration officials warned that a new caravan of migrants could form in Honduras in the coming days. In January, Guatemalan authorities blocked the first caravan of the year, sending nearly 5,000 Hondurans back to their country over a 10-day period.
But while Guatemala focused on the caravan, other migrants headed north, as always, in small, discreet groups. During last month’s caravan, shelters in southern Mexico began to see their numbers increase, especially with Honduran migrants.
Small groups of migrants are more vulnerable to criminals who kidnap and extort them, activist Figueroa said.
The most invisible are those who pay smugglers who put them in trailers like the one the Mexican authorities stopped in Veracruz this week. Inside were 233 migrants, most from Guatemala.
At the end of January, 19 bodies, shot and burned, were found inside a truck near the Mexico-Texas border. It was believed that most were Guatemalan migrants. A dozen state police officers have been arrested in connection with the case.
“We anticipate an increase in violence,” said Sergio Martin of Médecins Sans Frontières, noting that despite the pandemic, migrants continue to be forced to go underground.
Right at the border where the bodies were found, Rev. Francisco Gallardo, director of the Matamoros migrant shelter, said he recently made arrangements for two pregnant women to give birth to their babies in Mexico City.
“Two families with two pregnant women in eight months have just crossed the river,” he said, referring to the Rio Grande, which divides the two countries. “They already had their smuggler and decided to risk it.”
Back in southern Mexico, migrant Edilberto Aguilar continued to march. “This is a chain,” said the 33-year-old Honduran. “One day we arrive and tomorrow others arrive. This never ends. ”
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Verza reported from Mexico City. AP writers Juan Zamorano of Panama City and Sonia Pérez D. of Guatemala City contributed.