Mexican women help migrants on dangerous journey to U.S.

Few know better than a group of women in the eastern state of Veracruz, known as “Las Patronas,” how dangerous the migrant journey has been across Mexico in recent months.

Over the past 30 years, both sides of the Rio Grande have hardened their policies toward Central American migrants, but they have always maintained the same humanitarian stance toward migrants passing through their villages.

Every day, Las Patronas loads up rice, beans, tortillas, bread, canned tuna and bottled water.

as freight trains are called beastmeaning the beasts were approaching, they crawled to the side of the tracks and offered food for migrants traveling on the roofs to snatch as they whizzed by.

“Thank you! God bless you!” Migrants shouted over the deafening noise as the train headed north, a brief moment of kindness on one of the most dangerous migrant journeys in the world.

Many will try to make their way further north.

Mexico has intercepted about three times as many migrants crossing into its territory from Central America this year than a year ago. Although the 280,000 monthly interceptions carried out by Mexican authorities are approved by Washington, the measures are making life unbearable for those on the road.

“What many call the American Dream has turned into a nightmare,” said Norma Romero, founder of Las Patronas.

Mexico and the United States are at a critical juncture in their relationship.

Mexico has just elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who will take office in October. At the same time, the United States is moving forward with the campaign, Kamala Harris may become the first female president, and Trump’s second presidential term is approaching.

Neither situation gives Norma much reason for optimism.

“I never believed in politics. Instead, I believed in ordinary people making a difference and having a different way of thinking,” she said, as her fellow volunteers chopped vegetables to flavor their rice.

She also doesn’t think having a woman at the helm would have any impact on solving the widespread mistreatment of immigrants in Mexico.

“Sadly, politics have not improved for as long as I can remember. Indeed, there has never been any change that has done immigration any good.

I first met Norma a decade ago, as she showed the BBC how freight trains were packed with immigrants fleeing violence and suffering in their home countries for a better life in the United States.

Successive Mexican governments tended not to stop people from traveling north if they were just passing through. In the United States, undocumented immigration did not become the polarizing electoral issue it later became.

Today, this attitude has changed significantly. Especially in America’s border states, it’s a major issue heading into November’s ballot.

In June, President Joe Biden issued an executive order giving the U.S. Border Patrol the power to deport people who entered the U.S. illegally without processing asylum claims. In the first four weeks of the new policy, detentions at the U.S. southern border dropped by 40%.

Trains in Las Patronas have been noticeably emptier in recent weeks, and sometimes there are no migrants on board at all, Norma said. She believes migrants are using other routes, taking buses or walking.

But sadly, she said, they remain in the dark about such policy developments in the United States or the extent of the obstacles they face in their path:

“Immigrants lack the basic knowledge needed to travel to Mexico,” she lamented. “We see what’s happening to them and try to consider their well-being as human beings.”

Las Patronas also runs a shelter where weary migrants can get a hot meal, a bed, a shower, laundry and medical attention.

Guadalupe, an immigrant from El Salvador, stayed with her 17-year-old daughter, Nicole, for a few days to rest and regain her strength. She said they wouldn’t go on the trip beast Being taken off the freight train again by immigration officials.

The experience was brutal, she recalls.

“They attacked a lot of people who were with us and shocked others with Tasers. They almost hit me with a Taser too. It was the worst experience we’ve ever had in Mexico.”

For some, traveling through Mexico is one of the most worrying parts of a journey that begins in the Andes or the Caribbean, given the threat of kidnapping, sexual abuse and extortion from the country’s drug cartels.

Still, they are often extorted by immigration and security officials, the same people charged with upholding the law in Mexico, Guadalupe said.

“Once they took us off the train, many immigration officials asked us for bribes. If we had enough money, we could get through. This time we didn’t and they sent us back to the Guatemalan border. That was the hardest thing. .

Mexican law enforcement has undoubtedly reduced the number of immigrants entering the United States.

“There is no migration crisis right now,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said recently, urging the United States to step up development aid to Central America to stop people from leaving their homes.

Instead of direct deportations – Mexico deported only about 8,500 people in the first three months of this year – Mexican authorities have resorted to an “internal deportation” approach. Thousands of detained migrants were sent to Guatemalan border towns, some 2,000 kilometers from the U.S. border.

This strategy drains the funds and energy immigrants need to continue to survive. Guadalupe, a Salvadoran immigrant, likened the strategy to a giant game of snakes and ladders:

“Very similar. Just like the board game, you have to avoid stepping on the snake or you’ll end up back where you started. Same here. If we don’t hide or run faster than the immigration officer, then our journey will be over and we Will be sent all the way back to the starting point.

The BBC’s repeated requests to interview the Mexican government on the issue of undocumented immigrants went unanswered.

Guadalupe helped Norma Romero and other women carry food to the tracks as another train approached.

No matter who wins in the United States or their relationship with President-elect Scheinbaum, Las Patronas will not turn off their stoves as long as immigrants keep passing through, Norma said.

Listen to “Las Patronas” from the BBC World Service documentary.