Police ‘scare away’ migrants in northern Mexico as civilians bring them food

While the Juarez municipal government and immigration They launched an operation to “scare” migrants approaching the Rio Grande to prevent them from setting up camp and crossing the border illegally into the United States. Dozens of civilians come to offer water and food to the nearly 700 migrants held in a camp on the U.S. side awaiting processing.

During the EFE tour, in operations carried out by the municipal police of Juárez and the National Migration Institute (INM), migrants are not arrested, only asked to leave the river and some are persuaded to join patrols to take them to shelters.

This Friday, Immigration Commissioner Francisco Orduño met with the Mayor of Juárez, Cruz Pérez, and the Governor of Chihuahua, Maria Eugenia Campos, to formulate strategies to address the migration crisis engulfing a Mexican border city.

Among the agreements they concluded in Ciudad Juarez, The epicenter of the migration crisis in the north of the country is the removal of migrants from the river area on the Mexican side.where they set up camps of up to 300 people and where they were kidnapped and attacked.

Yesterday, EFE documented one such operation in which ministries and immigration agents ask them to leave the Rio Grande area, while most leave for a short time, because as soon as the patrols leave, they return to their concentration areas.

Three kilometers from the site of the operation, but on the American bank of the Rio Grande, there is a camp where about 700 migrants live. many of whom had been without a regular supply of water and food for more than 72 hours.

Dozens of civilians from the border city of Ciudad Juarez arrived there with humanitarian aid, mainly water and food collected from the population.

“The fact that I live in a border area has made me see many people in a migration situation,” he said. Monica Rangel, who together with her friends raised funds to buy water and take it to migrants. located in the camp near Gate 36.

Rangel recalled seeing migrants starve and freeze while surviving without clothing. “We would like to provide as much help as possible, we know they are very hungry, from all the stories they tell you, going through the jungle, the Beast and all that,” he added.

He demanded that the Mexican authorities at least have decent places, since it is very hot here and migrants are dehydrated.

Claudia Gutierrez preaches the word of God to migrants, but she also feeds them.

“We brought water and sandwiches (…) our community should understand this because we are parents who also have children, I put myself in their shoes, it would be very sad if our children died in the desert,” he said .

Meanwhile, at a camp of about 700 migrants located in front of Gate 36 of the border wall, aid is pouring into the hands of Juarez civilians.

“We’re killing ourselves, how is it possible that a soft drink sells for 150 pesos ($8), that’s crazysays Mauro Reyes, a Venezuelan migrant who has been camping for two days on the country’s northern border, but on the American side.

There is not even shade, you are in the sun, then you feel hungry, you are cold, you want to sleep, you feel hot. You go and want to buy water for 50 pesos ($30), it costs 70 pesos ($40), we are killing ourselves,” Reyes lamented, while receiving help from one of the civil organizations visiting the area. division between Mexico and the US to help migrants.