As migration falls, homicides rise on Mexico border

It was recently announced that migrant detentions have fallen by more than 40% since Biden announced asylum restrictionsAccording to the Department of Homeland Security, fewer than 2,400 encounters per day.

However, this phenomenon seems to have a hidden side, as authorities in Chihuahua, a state on the border between Mexico and the United States, warned of a 33% increase in homicides in the state capital and a 7% increase in Ciudad Juárez, which coincides with a drop in migration.

According to authorities, The phenomenon is due to the fact that criminal groups that traffic people are now fighting over the scarcest migrants.explained in a conference the Secretary of Public Security of the State, Gilberto Loya Chávez, and the mayor of Ciudad Juárez, Cruz Pérez Cuéllar.

The city of Chihuahua suffered the largest spike, while in Juarez June was the second deadliest month of the year, with 106 homicides, only below January, when there were 125.

“In the municipality of Chihuahua, unfortunately, 52 people lost their lives in June, due to the intentional homicides that occurred in the month. Compared to May, this is a 33% increase. We had 39 in May. Ciudad Juárez went from 99 in May to 106 in June,” added Loya Chávez.

These figures follow the more than 40% drop reported last Wednesday by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in migrant arrests on its southern border since the executive order of June 5 to restrict asylum and expedite deportations.

Following the announcement of the asylum restrictions, the average daily number of migrant arrests in the El Paso, Texas sector decreased by 36% per month to 484, according to Border Patrol figures.

Just last Friday, a police operation found six dead and two wounded by gunshots in a community near kilometer 37 of the Chihuahua-Juarez highway, where some were Central Americans.

This is the third massacre related to human trafficking in the last three months in the city of Chihuahua.

And over the weekend, the National Migration Institute (INM) and the Federal Preventive Police detained 65 migrants crammed into a dump truck in temperatures of more than 43 degrees as it tried to pass an Army road checkpoint.

*With information from EFE,

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