With despair overflowing, dozens of migrants, children and adults, threw themselves into the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Tamaulipas this Wednesday to turn themselves in to the US authorities and seek to be allowed to stay in the country.
This situation led to the mobilization of the security forces of that country to stop them when they reached their territory.
With inflatable mattresses and some lifeguards, women and minors boarded the “boat” and supported by people who are also awaiting asylum, they passed the flow that has previously caused the death of Central Americans and Mexicans seeking the “American dream.”
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“About 200 people have passed. (We are) supporting people who are of another nationality to help them pass because here you have to go through a procedure and it takes a long time,” Venezuelan Jonathan Contreras told EFE.
In the Rio Grande area, as the tributary that divides the countries is known in the United States, the agents intercepted those who arrived by this route and took them to units to transfer them to another instance.
TOTAL DESPAIR
Despite the risk, families ventured out to swim with only life jackets once the first ‘raft’ deflated from the lily invading the water.
Tied with a rope and accompanied by little ones who had to endure the low temperatures, after the icy wave that began to register in the region, they achieved their goal.
“Sometimes we don’t have anything to eat, even though they come and help us. We already have about 30 days here and nothing to open the bridge for us”, said the Venezuelan Dubraska Tovar, mother of five children with whom she crossed the Rio Grande.
Some, who are waiting in Mexico for their cases to be reviewed and already forming a new camp, entered to help families move forward, above all, due to the danger that children were running, including a five-month-old Chilean baby.
“We have almost a month (at the Mexican border), we have sent folders everywhere, there is no response, they do not say anything, not a message,” said the Peruvian, Ricardo Abraham, who arrived with his wife and infant in the territory American through this channel.
A member of the Border Patrol jumped into the river and, after helping some minors reach the mainland, took out a knife to tear the plastic so that the migrants would no longer be transported in this way, however, since they had bought another.
WARNED CRISIS
Before nightfall, the families continued with the activity, looking for the Government of US President Joe Biden, which maintains Title 42 in force, to give them an opportunity to enter the nation by this method punished by the country of bars and the stars.
“We have been here for more than a month and nothing, the babies have gotten sick, this cold has hit them a lot. It is desperate, too much, they have already been traveling for three months, it is very strong”, argued the migrant Norveli.
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While in that part of the river migrants ran to the United States, in another sector almost 7,000 people gathered to register with the association “The Sidewalk School”, which promised to assist them so that the legal entities of the United States analyze their files and determine if they can have stay in the nation.
The migration crisis in Matamoros, in northern Mexico, has been accentuated by the lack of shelters, food and services, while hundreds already live on the banks of the Rio Grande in tents, as happened a few years ago with the Protection Program for Migrants deployed in the era of Donald Trump.
