Migrants face freezing Christmas at U.S.-Mexico border
MATAMOROS, Mexico (Reuters) – Hundreds of migrants marched to the northern border of Mexico for Christmas in the hope that U.S. immigration restrictions will soon be lifted as the United States endures winter storms. preparing to camp in the cold.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that the restrictions known as Title 42 could temporarily apply, many immigrants were forced to leave the country over Christmas weekend in what the Mexican Weather Service called a “ball of arctic air.” facing.
“I’m here, but where else can I go?” said Walmix Juin, a 32-year-old Haitian immigrant preparing for the weekend in a flimsy tent in the city of Renosa on the McAllen, Texas border. “I never thought I’d spend Christmas like this.”
In the bordering cities of Matamoros and Reynosa, thousands of people are camping outdoors or in basic shelter, with temperatures expected to hover around freezing on Saturday and improve only slightly on Sunday. .
Further west, in Ciudad Juarez, where hundreds of migrants line up for asylum at the border with El Paso, Texas, temperatures are forecast to drop to -6 degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit). Many people sleep on the streets.
Authorities have expanded shelter space in recent days, but some migrants remain wary.
Antony Rodriguez, 29, from Venezuela, wearing a baseball cap and a jacket that zips up to the chin, huddled under blankets in a tent with five relatives to stay warm in Matamoros. I was sending
After an arduous journey across Central America and Mexico, Rodriguez said he declined shelter offers because he feared authorities would bus them south.
“We feel they will send us back,” he said.
Another Venezuelan in Matamoros, Giovanni Castellanos, said he was wrapped in blankets and camped in a tent on the border to get a handle on the situation.
“When you go to a shelter, you are far away from where the real information is,” said a 32-year-old man.
Title 42 allows the United States to return immigrants to Mexico or certain countries without the opportunity to seek asylum. Prior to the court’s ruling, it was scheduled to end on December 21st. With it unclear when it will end, some officials fear the city could be overwhelmed if more migrants show up.
“U.S. immigration policy has a huge impact here on the border,” Renosa Mayor Carlos Peña Ortiz said Friday.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Daniel Becerril; additional reporting by Jackie Botts, Jose Luis Gonzalez and Lizbeth Diaz; editing by Leslie Adler; editing by Dave Graham)