Matamoros, Mexico
The dismantling of the camp in the Mexican border town of Matamoros symbolizes the end of the brutal migration policy of former US President Donald Trump, while dozens of people return to the town seeking to fulfill the American dream.
With the passage of the last group of asylum seekers in the United States, this Friday the authorities of the National Institute of Migration and the municipality of Matamoros, accelerated the cleaning of the place that was inhabited for almost two years. by Central Americans, Mexicans, and people of other nationalities.
What in 2019 “bloomed” like a camp, on the banks of the Bravo River, under unsuitable conditions, was reduced to piles of country houses and tons of rubbish estimated to be removed in a week.
“It was a very sad, very tragic reality, which should never have existed, but it did exist. Now it has been corrected, we hope that what we have seen here will never happen again,” the coordinator of Efe told Efe. Catholic Charities in the Texas Valley, Pimentel Standard.
The irregular settlement, which bordered the city of Brownsville, Texas, was the scene of fateful images such as the deaths of Oscar and Valeria, a migrant father and daughter, who drowned when they tried to reach the United States.
On February 12, the Joe Biden government announced the reopening from February 19 of the cases of asylum seekers returned to Mexico by a program of former President Donald Trump.
This program, known as the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) or “Remain in Mexico”, required these people to remain in Mexico pending their appointments in immigration courts. Americans.
IMMEDIATE FUTURE
The camp numbered more than 2,000 inhabitants, but over time and the tightening of the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP), many families left the place, while others, tired. of the precarious conditions, they rented houses in Matamoros and the number was reduced to 700 migrants.
8 days after the start of the family crossing in the United States, a process in which priority was given to those in the camp, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported on Friday a total of 731 asylum seekers who are already reunited with their families in U.S. territory.
“The camp is completely closed. Every migrant who is in Mexico, who is in MPP, continued with the UNHCR process,” Pimentel said.
There were some people left in the area who have not been able to be called by the US Government, but who will have to move to the Migrant House to continue with the procedure because the area has been closed by the Mexican authorities.
ONE MORE CONCERN
“It’s worrying, because many groups are coming from all over the world to bet on the surrounding with the purpose of crossing into the United States. It’s not possible,” said the representative of the House of Migrants, Juan Antonio Serra Vargas.
The Beta Group – agents who guide and assist migrants – held a meeting with migrants who remain outside an unused official building, located near the customs of the border crossing, but the families did not leave. remove from place.
Fifty citizens of Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua live crammed into a space and face the difficulty experienced by MPP members two years ago when they were returned from the United States.
“There are no hostels and we have stayed here. We have no food,” said César Moncada, of Honduran origin.
Some activists have already begun to act, such as the Matamoros Resource Center, to enable a shelter and meet the demand that has erupted in recent weeks.
“They are dismantling the camp, they are not going to open it and we have no chance to enter here,” said the migrant who arrived accompanied by his wife and two children.