By: EFE Posted 24 Sep 2023, 9:30 pm EDT
While the municipal government of Juárez and Immigration They mounted an operation to “scare away” migrants approaching the Rio Grande to prevent them from camping out and crossing illegally into the United States. Dozens of civilians come to offer water and food to nearly 700 migrants who are in a camp on the US side, waiting to be processed.
In an EFE tour, during the operations carried out by the municipal police of Juárez and the National Migration Institute (INM), the migrants are not arrested, they are only asked to leave the river, while some are convinced to get on the patrols to take them to the shelters.
This Friday, the Commissioner of Immigration, Francisco Orduño, met with the mayor of Juárez, Cruz Pérez, and the governor of Chihuahua, María Eugenia Campos, to formulate strategies to confront the migrant crisis that is plaguing the Mexican border city.
Among the agreements they made in Ciudad Juárez, epicenter of the migration crisis in the north of the country is to remove migrants from the river area on the Mexican sidewhere they had formed camps of up to 300 people, and where they were exposed to kidnappings and assaults.
Yesterday EFE documented one of these operations where ministerial and immigration agents ask them to withdraw from the Rio Grande area, while the majority withdraw for a short time, because as soon as the patrols leave they return to their concentrations.
Three kilometers from where the operations take place, but on the US side of the Rio Grande, there is a camp with about 700 migrants, many of whom have been without a regular supply of water and food for more than 72 hours.
Dozens of civilians from the border Ciudad Juárez have arrived there with humanitarian aid, mainly water and food collected from the population.
“The fact of living in a border area has made me see many people in a migration situation,” he said. Mónica Rangel, who raised funds with some friends to buy water and take it to the migrants located in the camp near gate 36.
Rangel recalled that he has seen migrants go hungry and cold, while surviving without clothes. “We would like to give as much help as possible, we know that they are very hungry, from all the stories they tell you, going through the jungle, the Beast and all this,” he added.
He demanded from the Mexican authorities that, at least, there be decent places, since it is very hot and the migrants are dehydrating.
Claudia Gutiérrez preaches the word of God among migrants, but she also feeds them.
“We brought water and sandwiches (…) our community has to understand them because we are parents who also have children, I put myself in their place, it would be very sad if our children died in the desert,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the camp of some 700 migrants, located in front of gate 36 of the border wall, aid arrives in the hands of Juarez civilians.
“We are killing ourselves, how is it possible that a soft drink sells for 150 pesos (8 dollars), that is crazy”says 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 a shadow, you are in the sun, then you get hungry, you get cold, you get sleepy, you get hot. You go and you want to buy water for 50 pesos (30 dollars), it is 70 pesos (40 dollars), we are killing ourselves,” Reyes lamented, while receiving help from one of the civil organizations that come to this part. of the division between Mexico and the US to help migrants.
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