Children go missing as Central American migrants clash with Mexican forces

[webfact]

Children go missing as Central American migrants clash with Mexican forces

By Roberto Ramirez

 

Mexican National Guards form up as migrants, part of a caravan travelling to the U.S., gather near the border between Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, January 20, 2020. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

 

SUCHIATE RIVER, Guatemala/Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican security forces fired tear gas at rock-hurling Central American migrants who waded across a river into Mexico earlier on Monday, in a chaotic scramble that saw mothers separated from their young children.

 

The clashes between hundreds of U.S.-bound Central Americans and the Mexican National Guard underscores the challenge President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador faces to contain migration at the bidding of his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.

 

The mostly-Honduran migrants were part of a group of several thousand people that had set off last week from Honduras, fleeing rampant gang violence and dire job prospects in their homeland.

 

Video footage showed scattered groups of migrants throwing rocks at a few members of the National Guard militarised police who were on the banks of the river attempting to thwart illegal crossings, while hundreds of others ran past into Mexico.

 

"We didn't come to stay here. We just want to cross to the other side," said Ingrid, 18, a Honduran migrant. "I don't want to go back to my country because there is nothing there, just hunger."

 

A Reuters witness spoke to at least two mothers whose young children had gone missing amid the chaos, as the migrants on Mexican soil scattered in an attempt to avoid being detained by Mexican officials.

 

Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) said it will transfer all undocumented foreigners to immigration stations and will return them to their home countries if their legal status cannot be resolved.

 

The Reuters witness said several kilometers from the border Mexican immigration authorities had filled a bus and pickup trucks with detained migrants.

 

Trump has threatened to punish Mexico and Central American countries economically if they fail to curb migrant flows, resulting in a series of agreements aimed at making good on Trump campaign promises to curb immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

WADING ACROSS THE RIVER

Over the weekend, at least 2,000 migrants had been camped in the Guatemalan border town of Tecun Uman, opposite Ciudad Hidalgo on the Mexican side.

 

The migrants appeared to grow impatient on the bridge over the Suchiate River that connects the two countries, after some were denied permission to cross by assembled Mexican migration officials.

 

The INM said it informed the migrants it could not allow them to cross into Mexican territory to "transit" through and blamed the group's organizers for "ignoring the risk to minors and at risk people" by crossing the river.

 

Mexico has offered migrants work in the south, but those who do not accept it or seek asylum will not be issued safe conduct passes to the United States, and most will be deported, the interior ministry said.

 

Mexican authorities had already received nearly 1,100 migrants in the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, the ministry said on Sunday.

 

According to Guatemala, at least 4,000 people entered from Honduras since Wednesday, making for one of the biggest surges since three Central American governments signed agreements with the Trump administration obliging them to assume more of the responsibility for dealing with migrants.

 

(Writing by David Alire Garcia and Anthony Esposito; Additional reporting by Dave Graham and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel, Bernadette Baum and Bill Berkrot)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-21

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[TooBigToFit]

I'm sure a lot of poorer Americans would consider living in those countries if they had a taste of the life there and equal rights to buy property and do small business there.

[BTB1977]

More reason to get the wall built.  Now if America can only cut out any aid and free money being given to illegals maybe it won't look so good there.  

[rgraham]

Why would the US want a bunch of cowards that are not willing to turn against gangs in their own country and fight? The history of our great country starts out with ejecting a gang that was taxing us with nothing in return, we turned on the British and sent them packing home!

[Baerboxer]

Purely economic migrants.

 

Their own country is a <deleted> heap; riddled with corruption, low services like education and health; crime ridden fueled by the corruption etc etc.

 

So their answer - to enter your country illegally and demand that your country provides assistance for them and their families.

 

And the left liberals think we should all do just that! 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 1/21/2020 at 12:38 PM, webfact said:

"We didn't come to stay here. We just want to cross to the other side," said Ingrid, 18, a Honduran migrant. "I don't want to go back to my country because there is nothing there, just hunger."

Where did she get the idea that it's OK to illegally enter the USA because her own country is a <deleted><deleted>?

I find her claims of "hunger" contrived as she grew up strong enough to walk to Mexico. If she were actually hungry I doubt she could make that journey, and I speak from experience.

 

People in once well off countries have had enough of people from <deleted><deleted> countries thinking they can just walk in and have a better life. Nothing in this world is for free, and if they ain't paying for it, the taxpayers are.

 

Don't like your own country- do something about it, in your country.