African Illegal Immigrants Stuck in Mexico Violently Clash with Authorities, Demand Passage to US: Report Guillermo Arias / Getty Images
African migrants in northwestern Mexico. (Guillermo Arias / Getty Images)
By Jason Hopkins
Published August 30, 2019 at 2:10pm
Thousands of African migrants held up in a southern Mexican city have formed an official organization, criticizing their treatment by immigration authorities and demanding passage into the United States.
The Assembly of African Migrants — a confederation of about 3,000 people from various African countries currently detained in Tapachula, Mexico — launched this week.
The group issued its first news release on Thursday, describing their origins, how they’ve suffered since entering Mexico, and their demands.
“We, the people of African origin, forced to remain Tapachula, suffer an unbearable humanitarian situation related to nurture, housing, health and hygiene; as well as systematic discrimination by immigration authorities,” their news release began. “Since we left our countries, for us life has been a permanent escape. We feel despair, hopelessness, fear, demoralization, loneliness and abandonment.”
The Assembly of African Migrants is made up of illegal immigrants who traveled from the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Cameroon and other African countries.
They left their countries, travelled across South and Central America, but have remained detained in Tapachula, a city on Mexico’s southern border near Guatemala.
Thanks in large part to pressure from the Trump administration, the Mexican government has dramatically stepped up enforcement against illegal immigration.
While the majority of illegal migrants traveling through Mexico are Central Americans, thousands of African migrants have also found themselves stuck near Tapachula’s federal immigration office.
Faced with threats of tariffs from Washington, D.C., the Mexican government has placed thousands of newly-formed National Guard troops on its southern border with Guatemala, and have blocked caravans attempting to travel through its country. Mexico has also agreed to work with the Trump administration on Wait in Mexico and metering policies that keep illegal immigrants out of the U.S.
Click for Full Text!
Poster Comment:
How did these Africans manage to get into Mexico? Who helped them? Was it Soros?