The Cubans Dachel, Yida and Amehd, who have parole humanitarian aid for the United States, have been detained since February 16 at the Las Agujas immigration station in Mexico City. As reported by Carmen Sardiñas, Dachel’s mother, “they got off the plane and without asking, they took their passports.”
Sardiñas specified that around 10 of the Cubans and Venezuelans, who were trying to reach the US, were taken off a plane, “they were put on a bus” and “put in jail.” All these details were informed by his daughter through the mobile. Due to this, they missed their flight and since they were admitted to the Migration station they were “incommunicado”.
Dachel had to pay extortion to be able to inform her mother about her arrest, “which is a violation of her rights,” specified Carmen Sardinas on their social networks.
Despite the fact that the detainees insisted that they had parole humanitarian status that was granted to them by the US authorities, the agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM) told him that they “did not know” of that benefit and were also unaware of the “sponsorship or the flight permit or anything”, stated Carlos HernandezYida’s father, in an interview for Telemundo 51. “You are in Mexico illegally,” they let them know.
Hernández denied the Migration argument. Relatives shared documents and the image of the humanitarian visa of one of the young women issued by the Mexican authorities and is valid for one year. These Cubans boarded an Aeroméxico flight in Tapachula headed for Mexico City, where the INM arrested them.
At the immigration station they refused to give information to 14ymedio about the group of detainees. “Any request must be issued to the National Institute of Migration,” said the person who answered the phone call.
The Las Agujas station has been exposed by the testimonies of several Cubans as a center where agents threaten them with deportation, extort them and violate their rights. In July of last year Angélica María Rodríguez Varela, Isael Meléndez Castro and Junier Blanco Hernándezthey were able to leave this site thanks to the fact that they processed an amparo.
The lawyer and defender of migrants José Luis Pérez denounced the arbitrariness of the Mexican agents. Similar cases such as the three people detained in Las Agujas have been filed since the beginning of January. On January 21, the Cuban Maidaly Martínez Rodríguez was arrested in Tapachula (Chiapas).
“This person was detained despite the fact that he had a humanitarian visa that he was given on January 16 and is valid for one year. He had to take refuge to be able to board a flight from Tapachula to Mexico City and prevent the stop”.
The lawyer reported the abuses by immigration officials in Chiapas. On January 28, “they tried to extort money from Mirsa Fernández Gómez at the Viva México checkpoint in Tapachula.” She recalled that she left on a bus but the agents wanted to stop her despite “having a permit for 20 days and an amparo.” In the end she was allowed to follow her route to the US.
The Embassy of the United States in Cuba announced that 11,637 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have benefited from the humanitarian ‘parole’
On Sunday, a bus in which 45 irregular migrants from Colombia, Venezuela and Central America were traveling towards the US border, had an accident on the highway that goes from Cuacnopalan to Oaxaca. In the place 15 people died and another 15 were transferred to the general hospital of Tehuacán (Puebla).
This Monday the secretary of the state interior, Julio Huerta Gómez, announced that two of the migrants who were hospitalized had died. Regarding the accident, he indicated that the first investigations indicate that the driver lost control of the unit and crashed into a tree and overturned.
Last Friday the Embassy of the United States in Cuba announced that 11,637 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans have been benefited with the parole which allows them to receive travel authorization, and a stay of up to two years with a work permit.
The diplomatic headquarters reiterated that those who attempt to “cross into the United States illegally will be expelled and will lose the possibility of participating in this program.”
This Monday, the US Coast Guard repatriated 31 rafters to the island on board the ship joseph poroo. The agency frustrated the journey of these people who sought to reach Florida in two rustic boats.
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