Jesús Estrada and Rubén Villalpando
Correspondents
La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, December 19, 2024, p. 9
Chihuahua, Chih., Agents from the National Guard (GN) and the National Migration Institute (INM) stopped a cargo train carrying 200 migrants in the capital of Chihuahua, hours after the convoy left Gómez Palacio, Durango. , and agents of the Border Patrol and the Texas National Guard threw tear gas bombs against dozens of undocumented immigrants who tried to surrender to the corporation at the so-called Gate 36 of the wall that divides Mexico from the United States, at the height of Ciudad Juárez.
On Tuesday, 200 foreigners boarded the train in Durango to reach the border, encouraged by a rumor that the US president, Joe Biden, would accept all asylum requests yesterday, International Migrants Day. Elements of the GN and the INM took them off the cars in the city of Chihuahua, but they insisted on continuing to Ciudad Juárez in buses, taxis or on foot.
A few dozen settled in an improvised camp next to an Oxxo store, on Juan Pablo II Avenue in the state capital, and they assured that INM personnel tried to transport them in vans to the state of Sonora.
In Ciudad Juárez, early yesterday morning almost a hundred migrants, including minors, crossed the banks of the Rio Grande to request asylum in the United States, near the place known as Gate 36 or Marker 36, but they were turned back with gas bombs. tear gas fired by the Texas National Guard and Border Patrol troops.
Public security corporations deployed an operation on the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande, with the participation of the anti-riot group of the GN Military Police to deter migrants.
However, a group of around 50 foreigners remained in front of Gate 36 yesterday afternoon. Some joined evangelical pastor and activist Carlos González, who went to the site to pray and ask the United States to open the border.
In addition, for around 30 minutes, US Customs and Border Protection agents interrupted automobile traffic on the Córdova-De las Américas international bridge, also known as the Libre bridge, as a preventive measure against a possible mass crossing of migrants.
