Thousands of people have reached the northern border in recent
days and crossed into the United States, many after taking
dangerous journeys on freight trains known as "The Beast."
Mexican railroad operator Ferromex this week suspended 60 trains
due to the influx of people, and Mexico's National Migration
Institute (INM) has deployed agents to dissuade people from
climbing aboard.
At a railway alongside a trash dump in Huehuetoca, a town north
of Mexico City, some 40 INM agents in more than a dozen vans
drove alongside the tracks to cut off access to migrants, and
sent up a drone to locate others who had scrambled into the
surrounding hills.
"They forced us away from the rail," said Jason, a Venezuelan
migrant who asked to be identified only by his first name. "We
have no other options anymore."
Migrants carrying backpacks and jugs of water made their way
through tall grass under the hot sun to retreat on foot to the
nearest town.
INM on Friday said it would work with Ferromex, owned by
conglomerate Grupo Mexico, to identify strategic points to
dissuade migrants from riding the trains, which it said puts
lives at risk.
Despite the dangers of clambering aboard car roofs or huddling
inside open-air wagons, many migrants say they cannot afford
other options, and fear extortion on the highways or being sent
by migration agents back to southern Mexico.
Milagros Narvaez, also from Venezuela, said the INM officers
told the migrants they had to turn back, and that she was
desperate after already struggling for nearly a month to find a
way to the northern border.
"It's been an odyssey to be here in Mexico," she said. "We want
to take the train to get to the border and cross into the United
States... Wherever the train takes us, wherever they will give
us asylum."
(Reporting by Jose Cortes in Huehuetoca; Writing by Daina Beth
Solomon in Mexico City; Editing by William Mallard)
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