HUEHUETOCA, Mexico — In a forlorn stretch of excessive desert exterior Mexico Metropolis, a dozen migrants trudged alongside beside a set of railroad tracks, hoping to leap on a freight practice that may take them nearer to the USA. They mentioned they have been solely vaguely conscious of the U.S. presidential election — which was a simply few days away — and their function in it.
“I don’t know much about American politics,” mentioned Santiago Marulanda, 38, who had traveled from Venezuela with along with his spouse and two youngsters and hoped to make it to California. “Whoever wins, wins. But I know this: Whoever the victor, things won’t be easy for us as immigrants.”
Migrants wait to load buses in a border patrol holding space beneath the Camino Actual Worldwide Bridge close to Eagle Go, Texas, in September 2023.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Occasions)
Unlawful immigration has been one of many largest points within the presidential race. Former President Trump has vowed to deport thousands and thousands of individuals he routinely describes as “invaders” and “criminals” — and Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged to scale back unlawful entries.
“Trump has a big mouth, but he doesn’t scare me,” mentioned Kevin Ociel Canaca, 25, who’s from Honduras and was planning to go to Houston.
He mentioned he had been dwelling and dealing there till being deported final yr, abandoning a son, now 3.
“If you’re a migrant, you’re going to suffer whoever is president,” Ociel mentioned. “Even if you work hard, someone is going to want you kicked out of the country. That doesn’t stop us.”
Tons of of migrants stroll in Eagle Go, Texas, in September 2023 to a U.S. Border Patrol space to be loaded into vans and transported to a processing middle.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Occasions)
Report numbers of asylum seekers arrived on the U.S. border through the first three years of the Biden administration. In June, the president imposed powerful new restrictions on asylum that dramatically decreased the variety of migrants getting into the nation — an achievement that Harris has touted in her marketing campaign.
Below intense strain from Washington, Mexican officers have aided that effort, intercepting northbound vacationers on roads and trains and in airports. Within the first eight months of the yr, Mexico detained almost 1,000,000 migrants, greater than double the whole throughout the identical interval in 2023.
Reasonably than deporting these migrants — nearly all of whom are from Latin America — Mexican authorities have transported most of them to the nation’s far south, close to the Guatemalan border.
Undeterred, many merely flip round and renew their northbound journeys, dodging criminals, crooked cops and Mexican immigration brokers.
“The Mexican migra has detained us multiple times, taken away our cellphones, beat us up, and sent us back to the south,” mentioned Yancarlis Caldera, 29, one in all tons of of migrants camped out in a squalid tent metropolis exterior the colonial-era Roman Catholic Church of Santa Cruz and Solitude in Mexico Metropolis.
She and her accomplice left Venezuela in September, leaving three youngsters behind.
“I’ve been all over Mexico at this point,” she mentioned. “I now know Mexico better than my own country.”
Migrants and asylum seekers collect in a makeshift camp close to Jacumba Sizzling Springs, Calif., in Might after crossing the border by way of rocky, mountainous terrain.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Occasions)
Many squatters within the tent metropolis log in every day to the U.S. authorities app CBP One in hopes of securing an asylum appointment on the border and being allowed into the USA. Appointments are restricted, and it is not uncommon to strive for weeks or months with out success.
The each day quest has taken on elevated urgency for a lot of migrants because the U.S. election has approached. Trump has vowed to scrap CBP One.
“What will we do if CPB One is gone?” requested Caldera, standing in entrance of her tent, which was coated with a black plastic tarp in opposition to the rain. “No one here is going back to Venezuela. There’s nothing for us there. We will get to the United States one way or another.”
A gaggle of nuns distribute meals to migrants resting alongside the practice tracks in Huehuetoca, Mexico, in Might 2023 as they give the impression of being to board a freight practice heading north, the day after U.S. pandemic-related asylum restrictions referred to as Title 42 have been lifted.
(Marco Ugarte/Related Press)
That was additionally the sentiment amongst individuals interviewed alongside the practice tracks north of Mexico Metropolis, the place migrants have lengthy hopped rides north on the freight community often known as La Bestia. The tons of who as soon as gathered by he tracks have diminished because the Mexican crackdown, however a number of teams have been nonetheless attempting their luck.
“We’ve been waiting for months for an appointment through CBP One,” mentioned Dinorah López Rojas, 25, who had traveled from Guatemala together with her brother, husband an an uncle. Appointment or not, all have been decided to make it to the border and finally Southern California.
“Yes, we’ve heard that there may be deportations after the elections in the United States,” she mentioned. “But I’m not sure about the candidates. I just hope we don’t get sent back after risking so much.”
As an oncoming practice rumbled within the distance, López and her household picked up their baggage in hopes that it might cease or decelerate in order that they may clamber aboard.
Particular correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
