The Cuban Yamilé was illegally detained for five days at the Acayucan station of the National Institute of Migration (INM), in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and her husband José, 12 days. “From the moment you are admitted, they take away your papers and your cell phone. It’s hell. There is harassment from the agents, mistreatment, extortion. They sell you a sanitary pad for 25 pesos, a toilet paper for 35 pesos,” this Havanan told 14ymediowho adds that his partner was transferred to the border with Guatemala.
“Human rights do not exist. A woman with asthma was withheld her medication until she paid 500 pesos,” the migrant underscores. Yamilé’s husband asked her to continue to Tijuana to process the appointment through CBP One because the application has been saturated. “Go ahead because if you return to Tapachula they can put you in jail,” she warned him.
“Those who approach you to help you are coyotes, who tell you they are lawyers. They asked each of us for $1,000 to free us, a group of seven Colombians, $2,700, a Venezuelan and her daughter, $1,300,” he stresses. .
Yamilé says that there are overcrowded migrants in Acayucan because people from Guatemala, Venezuela, rarely Cubans and Haitians arrive every day. “There are people who have been there for 25 days and do not know if they are going to return them to their country, they have you imprisoned as a criminal.” Before she left the immigration station, she was threatened with deportation if she was detained again. “I’m already registered”.
“Human rights do not exist. A woman with asthma was withheld her medication until she paid 500 pesos”
To the writing of 14ymedio Complaints have been received from Cubans who have been imprisoned in the immigration stations of Acayucan (Veracruz), Siglo XXI (Tapachula) and Las Agujas (Mexico City). Relatives of Luis Angel Sanchez They said that he spent several days in the capital, the agents accused him of having entered illegally, even though he had a safe-conduct and parole US humanitarian.
A law firm contacted Sánchez’s relatives and offered to release them in exchange for $5,000. After several days, he was released and is now with his family in the United States. The immigration stations have made extortion the bargaining chip so that Cubans can advance on their journey through Mexico.
The violations of the human rights of migrants in transit through Mexico to the United States have been duly based on 4,424 complaints received by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) against the INM between 2020 and 2022, but only 48 recommendations were issued.
“From 2018 to 2023, which corresponds to the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, most National Security posts have been militarized, including immigration stays,” said migrant defender Jose Luis Pérez Jiménez.
In the case of the 39 migrants who died in the fire at the temporary residence in Ciudad Juárez, lawyer Pérez Jiménez underlines, “Migration is fully responsible not only for the fires inside the immigration stations, but also for the overcrowding, systematic violation of the rights of those housed, the torture and mistreatment suffered by immigrants by guards and migration agents”.
“Those who approach you to help you are coyotes, who tell you they are lawyers. They asked each of us for $1,000 to free us.”
Migration has become dehumanized, the migrant defender specified, and this has been because the Government of López Obrador has “militarized” the detention centers for foreigners who enter illegally.
The military have other training and “the treatment they can give a migrant is not the most suitable,” Pérez Jiménez explained. “We see it in Mexico City, with the Las Agujas station, controlled by José Luis Valenzuela, a military man with a not very good reputation. Another case occurred in Tapachula, which until recently was controlled by General Aristeo Taboada. And in In Acayucan is the captain of the Navy, Jorge Alejandro Palau Hernández. These are an example of three ranches, but obviously almost all of them have been militarized by López Obrador.”
Palau Hernández was removed from his position as director of the Siglo XXI immigration station in Tapachula after a video was released showing him beating a migrant. to this sailor they transferred him to Las Agujaswhere several Cubans who have tried to extort have been detained.
Important that #INAMI clarify if this information is true ??
Jorge Alejandro Palau Hernández, who was director of the Siglo 21 Immigration Station, in Tapachula, #Chiapasand was removed from his position after the beating of a #migrantnow he is head of the immigration station #CDMX. pic.twitter.com/QaCQFH830S
— Eunice Rendon (@EuniceRendon) September 25, 2021
During his usual morning conference, this Friday López Obrador said: “I confess, the issue of the 39 deceased migrants has hurt me a lot, it has damaged me (…) it moved me, it broke my soul.” The Mexican president announced a reform within the INM and the formation of an external council so that the human rights of people in transit are not violated, for which he has the collaboration of Father Alejandro Solalinde.
More than a reform to the INM, Jose Luis Pérez Jiménez says that a reform to the Migration Law is urgent, so that “the figure of migrant accommodation is not understood by the INM as preventive detention, as long as it is not specified, there will continue to be abuses by part of immigration agents to arrest” migrants.
“It is also necessary to repeal Article 111 Section 5 of the Migration Law”, the lawyer specifies, because currently the agents use it to “pressure migrants to give up the protections”. When they are released they are given “a resolution that most of the time is a permit for them to in 20 days they leave the country, not that they can move to the US border and they don’t say that”.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
