Migrants on Mexico's Northern Border Face Harsh Conditions

On Friday, the northern border of Mexico began to see a new wave of migrants who had set out weeks ago in the largest caravan of the year. They face increased obstacles to enter the United States due to the heightened control operations.

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In Ciudad Juarez, a group of 30 migrants crossed a high-speed avenue, then jumped the edge of the Rio Grande and ran so that agents of Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) would not prevent them from crossing into U.S. territory.

Some carried their children on their shoulders, while others held them by the hand in a 200-meter sprint, right at the final stretch before entering the United States.

The Texas National Guard did not mobilize, but the migrants had to cross the razor wire barricade set up by the Texan government and then line up at gate 36 of the border wall between Juarez and El Paso. There, U.S. immigration agents received them to begin their processing.

"My dream is to reach the U.S. and the so-called American dream that I've heard many people talk about. Large caravans have left Tapachula, facing all kinds of climates and wandering," said Guatemalan Luis Cruz.

Many of the migrants now in Juarez left in early November from Tapachula, on Mexico's southern border, with a caravan that grew to 8,000 migrants but disintegrated on Nov. 10.

Ciudad Juarez is one of the focal points of the unprecedented migratory flow, warned the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which noted in early November an annual increase of over 60 percent in irregular migration crossing Mexican territory in 2023.

"There are no authorities to stop the migration flows of thousands of people coming with their children, parents, and pregnant women. There is no obstacle to stop the migratory flow," said Ismael Martinez, director of the Pan de Vida shelter in Ciudad Juarez.

Meanwhile, border businesses are on alert. Thor Salayandia Lara, vice president of Maquiladora and Border Strips of the Manufacturing Industry National Chamber (CANACINTRA), predicts that the shelter crisis will worsen in the coming weeks.

"What we lament the most is that Ciudad Juarez and other small cities are not prepared to receive so many people. The winter season is approaching. The cold is very intense on the border and shelters are beginning to fill up again. There is not enough money to help these people," he said, emphasizing the need to comprehensively modify the migration policies of Mexico and the United States, two countries that rely on migrants for production.

"There must be an orderly migration that prioritizes labor. However, politicians have not understood this," he stressed.