Caravans receive rough welcomes at towns like Piedras Negras where locals are suspicious and officials struggle to house 1,700 newcomers
Rows of federal police in riot gear faced the former factory in the Mexican borderlands, as soldiers watched on from the gun turrets on a pair of Humvees.
But the armed men weren’t preparing for an operation in the country’s bloody drug wars: they were guarding a group of 1,700 Central American migrants who were hoping to reach the US.
“If they were protecting us, they’d be facing the other way round,” said Alex Torres, 20, as he gripped the chain-like fence around the factory. He spoke in perfect English, having been taken to the US at the age of four, and his plan was to return to his family in Indiana after being deported to Honduras last year. “Imagine being deported to a war zone,” he said.
Migrants – from Central America and beyond – are increasingly seeking safety in numbers as they make the dangerous passage through Mexico. But the caravans are receiving somewhat rough receptions at border towns like Piedras Negras where locals react with suspicion and officials struggle to house and feed so many newcomers.
The problem has been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s clampdown on the asylum system: at many ports of entry, US authorities have imposed a limit on the number of people who can apply for asylum each day.
The policy, known as “metering”, means that impoverished travellers are being forced to wait for weeks or even months – often in border towns plagued with violence and criminal activity. In small towns like Piedras Negras, local authorities and migrant shelters run by churches and NGOs are often unready to deal with the sudden surge.