Thousands of migrants are trapped in Tapachula, just north of Mexico’s border with Guatemala, where they face strict limitations on their movements, few job prospects, poor living conditions and long waits for immigration hearings. Some have labeled Tapachula an “open-air prison” or a “living nightmare” – others call it the southern extension of the U.S. border. Why are they stuck there? The answer is a complicated mix of government bureaucracy, politics and pandemic-related challenges. Meanwhile, moments of anguish and desperation unfold day after day in Tapachula, a city of about 350,000, where migrants who left the turmoil of their home countries realize their journey has been stopped, maybe indefinitely, 1,000 miles from the U.S. border.
‘Open-air prison’ in southern Mexico traps thousands of migrants
TAPACHULA, MEXICO – The desperation here is palpable. It fills the stifling air as migrants line up in the hot sun outside the National Migration Institute in hopes of receiving an interview, their children close at hand and their visa applications tucked under their arms in colorful protected sleeves so the papers won’t get ruined…
‘An abandoned issue’: Migrants’ mental health mostly ignored by Mexican government
TAPACHULA, Mexico – The migrant crisis is evident everywhere in this city of 350,000 near Mexico’s southern border. Migrants queue up at dawn to apply for immigration documents. Sidewalks overflow with migrants peddling fried rice and flat bill hats. A park, once a popular tourist attraction, is a makeshift campground. The sounds of Spanish, Hatiatian…
How the Mexican government has failed to solve the migrant crisis in Tapachula, Mexico
In Tapachula, migrants sew their mouths, start fires and blockade roads, in protest against the Mexican government’s slow process for those seeking asylum and work visas. In some cases, migrants have been trapped in the city for years.
Migrants stuck in Mexico still rely on money from family to live
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Martin Nore sells odds and ends – baseball hats, a stock pot, a blender – in front of a memorial dedicated to Benito Juarez, Mexico’s first Indigenous president, while he waits for documents that would allow him to continue his migration north. The Haitian’s journey to the United States has been stalled…
Sex work equals survival for some migrant women in Tapachula, Mexico
TAPACHULA, Mexico – For migrants in this overwhelmed city, many women from very different parts of the globe turn to sex work for the same reason: survival. Behind Benito Juarez Park, in Tapachula’s center, women sit in pairs or stand by themselves outside the bars and restaurants. Their heavy eyeshadow and bright lips are juxtaposed…
‘Nothing here is enough’: Systemic gaps in health care system affect migrants in Tapachula
TAPACHULA, Mexico – On a cool Monday morning in early March, dozens of people – migrants and citizens alike – line up outside a public health clinic as rush hour traffic hums by. One man’s knee is wrapped. Another has a large growth on his face. A teenager is pregnant. Mothers and fathers hold coughing…
Journey to reach Mexico fraught with danger and uncertainty for migrants
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Mu’taz hoped to be holding his 13-year-old nephew’s hand as they took their first steps into Mexico, marking the end of their long, arduous journey from Jordan. Instead, Mu’taz crossed alone; his nephew is buried back in Panama. Tens of thousands of migrants, desperate to leave behind the violence and economic turmoil…
Black migrants see nothing in Tapachula but racism and a dead end
TAPACHULA, Mexico – The wide street leading to the Instituto Nacional de Migración is lined with bright and bold murals affirming the human rights of all people without regard to their country of origin. However, many of the hundreds of Black migrants from Africa and Haiti who daily wait outside the office of INM say…
‘All I can do is wait’: Children make up a third of migrants in documentation limbo
Listen to this story: TAPACHULA, Mexico – Around the world, millions of people are leaving their homes to seek refuge or asylum in safer, more prosperous countries. From Syria and Ukraine to Venezuela and Haiti, about 82.4 million people who have been forcibly displaced must leave everything they’ve known to seek a better life. Tens…
Housing options limited for migrants forced to wait in southern Mexico
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Each night, Eduardo Rojas sleeps on flattened cardboard boxes over sand-colored dirt in this city of 350,000 near the border with Guatemala. He has been sleeping in Parque Bicentenario for more than six weeks as he waits to continue on his journey north to seek asylum in the U.S. Rojas, 21, who’s…
‘Growing up in trauma’: Young migrants in Tapachula cling to fragments of childhood
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Of the thousands of migrants who pass through Mexican shelters each year, at least 1 in 3 are children. Children and teenagers are fleeing north in droves, from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala and a host of other countries. Some come with extended families or older siblings. Others travel with friends, but at…
Migrants endure wretched living conditions in Tapachula, Mexico
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Migrants throughout this southern Mexico city are living in crowded conditions, with little access to food and clean water. Many live in parks, where it’s not only difficult to obtain basic necessities, but also to use a restroom. Others are renting out rooms, staying in shelters – and being detained in the…
‘It could have been me:’ Hundreds of migrants in Tapachula die alone, unidentified
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Juan Carlos, a gravedigger at Panteón Municipal, the City Cemetery, pointed to the barren plot of dirt beneath his feet. “I buried 17 people here,” he said, referring to the unclaimed and often unidentified bodies of migrants who died in this city of 350,000, which is a conduit and holding center for…
Mexicans and Guatemalans work together along shared border
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Every day, people on both sides of the Suchiate River, which separates Guatemala and Mexico, float across or wade through the water to eke out a living. They do a number of things, such as transporting goods, and rely on one another economically. The relationship between these towns is similar to that…
Organizations in Tapachula work to educate migrant children despite huge barriers
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Cristofer Josue Rivera, 9, hasn’t been to school since he and his father left Honduras more than two years ago. His father, Arnol Sorto, said they traveled to Tapachula in search of a better life, whether in Mexico or the United States. Cristofer, who wants to be a firefighter, went to school…
In focus: Migrants languish in Mexico’s chaotic immigration system
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Migrants have gathered in the thousands in Tapachula, seeking to apply for asylum or humanitarian visas to stay in Mexico or continue their journeys north. Protests outside Mexico’s immigration office have become more frequent as applications bog down and migrants struggle with limited access to social services and basic needs. A young…
‘State of siege’: Tapachula residents react to the recent influx of migrants
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Tapachula’s location near Mexico’s southern border has made it a city of migrants. “We are a border city that has historically received migrants in different stages and in different ways,” said Roberto Fuentes, general secretary of the city council. “Those migrations practically formed our city.” But something has shifted, Fuentes said. The…