Immigration agents from Mexico intercepted 92 migrants this Saturday, including 19 minors, who were traveling crowded in a trailer in Coahuila, a state in the north of the country that borders Texas. Among the people, 12 Nicaraguans are counted.
The National Migration Institute (INM) and the Coahuila police discovered the migrants during a routine check on the Saltillo-Torreón federal highway, near the Saltillo Criminal Justice Center.
The INM detailed in a statement that 31 people are from Honduras, 26 from El Salvador, 17 from Cuba, 12 from Nicaragua, three from Guatemala, and one from Ecuador, another Venezuela and one more from Peru.
“In accordance with and safeguarding their rights, the adults were taken to the INM offices to begin the migration process that defines their legal status in Mexico, while the minors remained under the guardianship of the System for the Integral Development of the Family. (DIF)”, he asserted.
In addition, the government agency reported the arrest of the driver and the seizure of the vehicle, which were made available to the state police and the Public Ministry of the Federation.
Hours before this operation in Coahuila, the INM announced the discovery of 330 migrants and the capture of 19 suspected human traffickers on the Puebla-Orizaba highway, in the center of the country.
More than 120,000 Nicaraguans left the country in 2021, a year marked by increased repression, the stagnation of an economy in crisis and an uncertain future, after the general elections for the reassignment of Daniel Ortega, which were unknown by the majority of countries of the hemisphere.
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Costa Rica and the United States continue to be the main destinations for Nicaraguan migrants, according to figures from both countries. Between January and November 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection USA (CBP) registered 72,192 apprehensions of Nicaraguans at the borderswhile, Costa Rica received 52,928 refugee applications from Nicaraguans.
Today’s operation occurs as pressure grows from Texas towards Coahuila and other Mexican border states after US President Joe Biden announced the elimination of Title 42, a rule of the Donald Trump Administration to immediately deport migrants for the pandemic.
The governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, hindered trade with Mexico two weeks ago by imposing additional truck inspections at the border, a measure he revoked in exchange for Coahuila, Nuevo León, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas reinforcing immigration checkpoints.
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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador criticized the “electoral interests” and “chicanadas” (traps) of Abbott, who threatened to reimpose inspections if the Mexican president does not stop irregular migration.
The region is experiencing a record migratory flow to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office detected more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021, which ended on September 30.
