Next stop, USA! Moment huge group of migrants bursts through cordon and trample officials in Mexico as they demand expedited processing so they can get to the border more quickly
Next stop, the United States! Moment when a huge group of migrants breaks through the cordon and tramples officials in Mexico as they demand expedited processing so they can reach the border faster.
- Migrants trampled each other, National Guard officers and local police as they rushed toward a refugee agency in Tapachula, Mexico, on Monday.
- The group, made up mostly of Haitian nationals, grew concerned over the length of time it took for the government to approve the legal documents.
- The papers allow refugees to stay in Mexico, work and travel freely – the majority still seeking to reach the border with the United States.
A group of migrants rushed into an asylum office in southern Mexico, trampling each one in an attempt to demand legal documents.
The migrants, most of them Haitian nationals, were seen on video overturning metal barricades and storming the Tapachula office on Monday.
Some migrants managed to bypass National Guard officers and municipal police guarding the center run by the Mexican Refugee Assistance Commission.
The group, which also includes migrants from Cuba and Honduras, has become increasingly frustrated with the Mexican government’s ability to process their asylum requests.
The papers they are seeking would allow them to travel freely and possibly reach the U.S. southern border region with Mexico.
Migrants are unhappy with the time it is taking to legalize their stay in Mexico as refugees stormed the Mexican Refugee Assistance Commission in Tapachula, Chiapas, on Monday.
Migrants wait to obtain their documents at the offices of the Mexican Refugee Assistance Commission in Tapachula, a border town in the southern Guatemalan state of Chiapas, opposite Guatemala.
Some people complain of having to wait weeks just to get an appointment in Tapachula, a municipality in the southern state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala.
Miguel Argoten of Cuba told The Associated Press that he had been waiting in Tapachula for a week to begin his asylum process at the office, which has recently been flooded with up to 2,000 application appointments each day .
“It’s very complicated, there are too many people here, the Haitians are desperate,” Argoten said. “They’re knocking down the barricades and that’s just slowing down the process.”
Two weeks ago, Daniela González abandoned Cuba with her husband and 2-year-old daughter because their salary was not enough to support the family.
They are also seeking to legalize their stay in Mexico before they can head north to the Mexico-US border.
The Mexican government estimates it will receive 150,000 asylum requests this year, surpassing the record of 129,000 set in 2021.
The migrants, most of them from Haiti, are caught in the middle of a stampede moments after a security barricade was toppled outside the Mexican Refugee Aid Commission in Tapachula on Monday.
She canceled the family’s visit to the refugee office last Wednesday because the migrants were agitated and stormed the site. The government responded by deploying National Guard officers.
“We just want to sort out the paperwork, but calmly and without problems,” González said.
Andrés Ramírez, who oversees Mexico’s Refugee Assistance Commission, said last week that the agency expects to receive 150,000 asylum applications this year, eclipsing 2021’s record of 129,000.
Until August, they already had 100,000, 25% more than the same period in 2021. More than half of the applications were received by the agency on Mexico’s shared border with Guatemala.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows border agents reported 1,973,092 encounters with migrants for illegal entry at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, which runs from October 2022 to September 2023. Figures for August have still not been published.
In comparison, 2,378,944 encounters were reported in FY 2022, an increase from 1,734,686 the previous fiscal year and just 458,088 for all of FY 2021.