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.
Migrant deaths declined as encounters rose; advocates warn against relaxing
WASHINGTON - Migrant deaths in Arizona's deserts have fallen sharply so far this year, even as the number of immigrants caught trying to cross the state's border with Mexico has been soaring, but advocates cautioned against reading too much into the numbers.
Organizations in Tapachula work to educate migrant children despite huge barriers
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Migrant children in Tapachula seeking education face many barriers to entry, including moving from shelter to shelter, lacking proper documents to enroll in local schools or needing to work to help support their families. Some spaces offer limited schooling, but most facilities are too overrun to accommodate everyone. But one school, with limited resources, is trying to change that.
Mexicans and Guatemalans work together along shared border
TAPACHULA, Mexico – People on both sides of the Suchiate River, which separates Mexico and Guatemala, work side-by-side every day, trying to make a living. Comparisons can be made to cities along the U.S.-Mexico border.
‘It could have been me:’ Hundreds of migrants in Tapachula die alone, unidentified
TAPACHULA, Mexico – The unidentified remains of more than 52,000 people are lying in mass graves, forensic service facilities, universities, forensic storage and safeguard centers across Mexico. This “forensic crisis” is playing out in a smaller but no less tragic way in Tapachula.
Migrants endure wretched living conditions in Tapachula, Mexico
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Migrants throughout Tapachula are living in crowded conditions. There is little access to food and clean water.
DACA déjà vu: Biden reaffirms, doesn’t expand, migrant protection program
WASHINGTON - The White House reaffirmed its commitment to DACA Tuesday, posting regulations to extend the 10-year-old program that has protected more than 770,000 of young undocumented immigrants, including more than 23,000 in Arizona.
Court: Conviction in writing, not open court, violated defendant’s rights
WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court ruled Monday that a drug-smuggling defendant’s rights were violated when a district court handed down his conviction in writing and not in open court, denying him an opportunity to appear.
‘Growing up in trauma’: Young migrants in Tapachula cling to fragments of childhood
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Thousands of migrants pass through Tapachula, Mexico, each in a journey northward, often bound for the U.S. One in three are children, which presents special risks.
Housing options limited for migrants forced to wait in southern Mexico
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Migrants seeking housing in Tapachula, one of Mexico’s poorest cities, have three choices as their immigration paperwork is processed: stay in a shelter and follow its rules, rent a room if they have money, or sleep on the streets. More often than not, their accommodations depend on circumstances and the social environment.
‘All I can do is wait’: Children make up a third of migrants in documentation limbo
TAPACHULA, Mexico – In one of the largest humanitarian crises currently in the Western Hemisphere, a third of migrants stranded at Mexico’s southern border are younger than 18.
Black migrants see nothing in Tapachula but racism and a dead end
TAPACHULA, Mexico – Black migrants fleeing violence and economic or political instability in their home countries are finding overt racism in Tapachula, where they await documents from Mexico that will allow them to continue their journeys north. But the glacial pace of the process has made the situation untenable.
