(14ymedio/EFE).- The brothers José Luis and Raúl Borroto entered Mexico through Chiapas 40 days ago. “We paid the coyote $4,000 to take us to the border and he abandoned us.” these cubans They are part of the group of 368 migrantss that the National Guard detained on November 18 in the municipality of Tecpatán, in Chiapas, a border state with Guatemala.
They spent 20 days in the Siglo XXI immigration station located in Tapachula and were released after paying a lawyer $3,700. “They threatened us with deportation. If we didn’t pay, they were going to put us on a plane and return to Cuba,” Raúl told 14ymedio. “There are many Venezuelans without documents or money. They are returning them to Guatemala.”
José Luis and Raúl left the immigration headquarters and immediately began their procedures at the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar) to request asylum. They must be submitted by January 9 to find out if they were accepted. The lawyer recommended that they process an amparo that would cost them $1,500 each so that they can move freely through the country and thus be able to reach Ciudad Acuña (Coahuila) to cross into the United States.
According to Comar figures, up to the month of November of this year, 17,487 Cubans requested asylum. Alejandro Austria de la Vega, in charge of the delegation in Chiapas, expects that 2022 will end with a little more than 80,000 applications from migrants, Cubans being the second most important national group.
“Tapachula is a central point for asylum requests, as well as for people who transit through national territory with the intention of reaching the United States in search of a better quality of life for their families, who stayed in their countries of origin” , commented to 14ymedio.
The influx of migrants at the southern border of Mexico grew by 40% in the last two weeks compared to the previous year, for which the authorities doubled their attention, according to what officials from the National Institute of Migration (INM) reported this Wednesday.
According to Migration records, 6,000 multiple migration forms (FMM) have been issued in the last 15 days, that is, some 400 daily to people from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti and Africa. In the provisional care module they have set up tents, tables, and chairs to care for some 1,200 migrants a day.
Migration and National Guard agents have avoided setting up camps for migrants to stay the night or line up the night before. “We are not going to allow them to make their tents or stay the night,” an official warned the migrants who came to carry out procedures.
Among those who are waiting for their regularization is the Venezuelan Jürgen Casanova, who is traveling with around 15 people who are on the streets. “We are begging and sleeping on the streets, to avoid spending on rent for houses or hotels, since all this is hard,” he told EFE.
On a white sign, the South American wrote: “Hello, Mexico. We are a Venezuelan family that needs your help. May God bless you and multiply your support.” Casanova commented that the situation is difficult. “We were victims, they robbed us on the Guatemalan-Honduras border.”
A similar story is that of Ecuadorian Luis Taboada, who is traveling with his wife and two minors. With a cardboard he requests help to feed his family. “People who have not gone through this journey, don’t try it, it’s not easy, don’t try it, especially if you go with children, in the end I thought everything was easy,” he warned.
Even so, he said that he will not give up on his trip and will continue despite the shortages and lack of food, since the only option is to meet the ultimate goal of reaching the United States.
The region is experiencing a record migratory flow to the United States, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office detained an unprecedented number of more than 2.76 million undocumented immigrants in fiscal year 2022, a figure that includes substantial increases of Cubans and Venezuelans.
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