Photo: Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images
By: EFE Posted 06 Sep 2023, 12:46 pm EDT
Given the growing wave of migrants that is arriving at the border Ciudad Juárez, in the state of Chihuahua, Mayor Cruz Pérez Cuéllar launched a call for help from the federation and the state to help him control and manage the arrival of people in transit to the United States.
Data from the municipality and from organizations that support people in transit say that the shelters are already saturated with more than 2,400 migrantswhile again dozens of foreigners are seen asking for money on cruise ships.
In addition, hundreds have settled in buildings that were abandoned because they do not have a place to stay.
“we are saturatedthe Kiki Romero shelter, about which we have the most information at hand, is saturated, we are talking with the National Institute of Migration (INM) to request that the Sabalza surveillance point be reactivated ”, the southeast exit of the state of Chihuahua where it borders Durango.
“There was an inspection point of the INM and the State Government, we are formally requesting that this point be reactivated because we are saturated,” said Pérez Cuéllar.
The saturation of migrants in the city is such that they no longer fit in the shelters and have begun to invade public buildings and parks.
They want to avoid a tragedy
The authority has reacted with operations to review the conditions of these ruined buildings and remove them if they put the physical integrity of the migrants at risk.
“We are going to continue with the inspections, we want to avoid tragedies and that is why we filed a complaint against the Hotel de Luxe (an abandoned four-story building invaded by more than 150 migrants in the center of the city) because we want the prosecutor’s office to somehow accompany us on this issue so that the rule of law is complied with, but it is urgent,” said Pérez Cuéllar.
“I would call for them to urgently respond to us so that we can enter the building legally, because we want to avoid tragedies and just as we will do it in this hotel, we will do it in all the points that present this situation,” added the mayor. .
Said It is very important that the passage of migrants be blocked as far as possible from the entrance to Chihuahua to ensure that not so many arrive at this border.
“When Sabalza was activated, it helped us reduce the flow of migrants and now that it is not active, we are having the problem again,” said the mayor, from the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena).
The Somos Uno por Juárez shelter network reports that it has 1,200 people in its 13 locations, while the Casa del Migrante houses 300 and between Kiki Romero and Leona Vicario there are another 900 for a total of 2,400.
Thousands of migrants on the streets
Father Francisco Bueno Guillén, director of the Casa del Migrante, said that after title 42 was closed, the number of migrants in the city dropped to 1,200.
However, after the US ambassador announced a plan to begin processing migrants from centers in Mexico, a new wave of people began arriving in the city.
Last week the presbyter estimated that there was already at least 8,000 migrants in the city, some 1,100 living on the streetsanother 2,400 in shelters and the rest have been placed in houses that rent among several.
The increase in migrants in Juárez is evident in the street crossings that have once again filled with foreigners who clean windshields in exchange for money or food to survive while they manage to cross into the United States.
The situation in Ciudad Juárez reflects what the border is experiencing several weeks after the end of Title 42 in the United States, a measure adopted by Donald Trump (2017-2021) and later continued by President Joe Biden to expel migrants immediately with the covid-19 pandemic argument.
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