Illegal immigrants have blocked the busiest highway in southern Mexico and are demanding a transit permit from the authorities. The migrants do not want to stay in the Central American country, but rather they all want to reach the United States.
A crowd of hundreds blocked a four-lane highway north of the town of Huixtla on Wednesday, demanding passage through Mexico to the southern U.S. border. Some people were lying cross-legged on the road, others had set up tents, and the migrants had completely paralyzed the busiest road in the area.
“We don’t want to stay here, we want to go further, but if we don’t have a permit, they will send us back. Many of them have already been deported, and many of them have been sent back to the southern border of Mexico. They don’t want to help us in any way, and they don’t offer a solution for any “Something. They ask us to open two lanes, but we will not do that, because we know that they will not give us permits anyway.” said a Venezuelan immigrant.
The migrant caravan of thousands of people began its journey from Mexico’s southern border to the north nearly two weeks ago, after most of them waited months in vain for a crossing permit.
Many illegal immigrants ran out of money and moved without documents. Since they had tried unsuccessfully to obtain documents in the neighboring town, they camped at a checkpoint on the nearby highway. According to one of the caravan’s organizers, the blockade will continue because the migrants fear criminals, human smugglers and extortionists who will fall at their mercy if they continue on their way.
“Migrants’ lives matter too. They kill them by handing them over to organized crime, even though they know they are more vulnerable without papers, and they know these people have to move on.” The activist explained.
The migrants hope that if they reach the southern border of the United States, they will be allowed to cross in time. US President Joe Biden announced last week that they would expand legal immigration opportunities and provide migrant workers with work permits to ensure safe and orderly immigration.
However, reception centers in major cities in the northern United States, such as New York and Chicago, are already overcrowded.
Meanwhile, a record number of migrants were reported from Panama, which borders Central and South America, in the first half of this year. By September, about 420,000 illegal immigrants had arrived in the country from Colombia, joined by thousands more from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Caribbean countries on their way to the United States.
Migrant convoys travel up to 50 kilometers daily. So far, Mexican authorities have not found a solution to limit mass migration. The growing number of illegal immigrants also poses an increasingly serious problem in the United States.
Tents of illegal immigrants line up outside a Chicago police station. Some have been living in the temporary camp for weeks. In the large city in the northern part of the United States, the temperature has already dropped below freezing this week. The organization of immigrants from South America is not accustomed to cold weather. They line their tents with cardboard and rags for lack of a better option. This is how they protect themselves from frost.
“We got caught in the snow unexpectedly. With nowhere to go, we had to stay in the tent. We took the kids to the store for a while to warm up. We got permission to move to the police building, but it was completely full, and we couldn’t accommodate it.” said a Venezuelan immigrant.
Although there are no longer enough places for migrants in reception centers, new crowds are heading towards the US border in Central America. A caravan of migrants estimated at 8,000 people set off from southern Mexico on Monday.
Many illegal immigrants claim that they no longer have money to buy food, which is why they left. However, they did not obtain permission to do so from the Mexican or American authorities.
We have been told that the presidents will resolve this situation, but we see no solution. The discussions did not actually reach any decisions that would limit migration or solve the problem. “None of them defended the immigrants here.” – said one of the activists who organized the caravan, referring to last month’s summit meeting of leaders of Latin American countries, where participants finally called on migration destination countries to resolve the situation.
However, the Haitian government took the matter into its own hands. All flights between the capital, Port-au-Prince, and Nicaragua, from which the United States can now be reached by land, were canceled overnight.
No reason was even given for this decision. On Monday, crowds of frustrated travelers faced the prospect of not being able to leave the island nation.
“The Prime Minister of Haiti decided to stop all flights without warning. On the other hand, we converted everything we had into money. I sold my land, everything I had to raise four thousand five hundred US dollars, but what should I do now?” One woman complained.
Many choose to flee rather than remain in Haiti, which is largely controlled by criminal gangs. It is estimated that more than 30,000 migrants have arrived in Nicaragua by plane in the past three months.
As is well known, governors of states bordering Mexico, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, have shipped nearly fifty thousand immigrants to New York, a “sanctuary city” that has long prided itself on protecting illegal immigrants from arrest and deportation.
But sheltering migrants costs a lot, as residents of the capital have been forced to spend more than $500 million on caring for newly arrived migrants since last July, and the total amount is expected to exceed four billion dollars next year. He admitted in March kit smart, Spokesman for the mayor’s office.
He described the situation as unsustainable. The city also announced last month that five hundred migrants were arriving every day, and that the number of border crossings was expected to increase, so the city would resettle migrants in other parts of the state as well.
Combating the accommodation of migrants
For this reason, counties outside New York used many means to combat settlement,
Obstacles have been created to transport migrants, including declaring a state of emergency or preventing hotels from providing temporary accommodation for migrants.
According to Reuters, on the other hand, at least nine counties have filed a lawsuit against New York City in order to prevent the resettlement of immigrants, and in addition, hotel operators who have contracts with the big city have also taken the case to court. Court, because they believe that the provincial administration is hampering their business activities.
