A comrade who arrived in Tijuana wit this winter’s caravan returned to Honduras to travel with the next caravan. An estimated ten to twelve thousand refugees are waiting in Tecún Umán, Ayutla, Guatemala, which sits opposite Hidalgo, Chiapas and the bridge to Mexico.
He says, “This is a call for help for aid organizations we are hungry on the southern border of Mexico.”
“Este es un yamado de ayuda para las organizations ayudennos tenemos ambre en.frontera sur de mexico”
We share our comrade’s photo essay of this scene.
In October, the Cuidad Hidalgo bridge was the overture of the humanitarian crisis orchestrated by the US and Mexico. When the Mexican police gassed the migrants on the bridge, they forewarned the tear gas, rubber bullets, and impromptu detention camps in Tijuana.
Since, the Mexican and US government conspired and created “Remain in Mexico,” which went into effect this month. This policy essentially swaps the refugee’s right to cross into the US while their asylum claim is processed with the offer of a Mexican humanitarian visa.
Consequently, today, as these thousands of migrants throng the Cuidad Hidalgo bridge, the Mexican government is greeting them with bureaucracy instead of tear gas.
From January through today, the Mexican Immigration has granted about 8,000 humanitarian visas to migrants of this second caravan as they cross into Chiapas, respectively about 6,600 to adults and 1,500 to minors.
Meanwhile in Tijuana, the Mexican government and NGOs are refusing aid to deportees. Roughly 150 people, many of whom are Mexicans deported from the US with few options, have come together to camp in a plaza near the US’s southern border. Nonprofits explicitly refuse to give them food, clothing, and medical care, on the basis that these deported migrants are not with the caravan.
A few days ago, another comrade chipped in and shared 25 USD worth of fruit with the deportee camp.
The denial of aid to the deportees, much like the “Remain in Mexico” plan, reveals how arbitrary and deadly the rules are for people between states.
As long as nation-states define the border, persons’ determination to survive will always trouble it. We have never seen thousands of people allow themselves to die of hunger. However, we have seen border patrol pour out water bottles.
COMMOTION 