Exclusive: U.S. migrant policy sends thousands of children including hundreds of babies back to Mexico

10/11/19 – Reuters

By Kristina Cooke, Mica Rosenberg, Reade Levinson

Since January, the U.S. government has ordered 13,000 migrants under 18, including more than 400 infants, to wait with their families in Mexico for U.S. immigration court hearings, a Reuters analysis of government data found.

Along the U.S.-Mexico border, babies and toddlers are living in high-crime cities – often in crowded shelters and tents or on the streets – for the weeks or months it takes to get a U.S. asylum hearing.

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Migrant protesters occupy U.S.-Mexico border bridge, close crossing

10/10/19 – Reuters

By Veronica G. Cardenas

U .S. asylum seekers camped out in a dangerous Mexican border town occupied a bridge to Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, leading to the closure of the crossing, witnesses and authorities said.

Hundreds of the migrants have been camped for weeks on the end of the bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, a city known for cartel control of people trafficking and gang violence.

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Pharmaceutical Companies Are Luring Mexicans Across the U.S. Border to Donate Blood Plasma

Photo by Amornthep Srina on Pexels.com

10/04/19 – ProPublica

By Stefanie Dodt, Jan Lucas Striozyk, ARD German TV, and Dara Lind

Every week, thousands of Mexicans cross the border into the U.S. on temporary visas to sell their blood plasma to profit-making pharmaceutical companies that lure them with Facebook ads and colorful flyers promising hefty cash rewards.

The donors, including some who say the payments are their only income, may take home up to $400 a month if they donate twice a week and earn various incentives, including “buddy bonuses” for recruiting friends or family. Unlike other nations that limit or forbid paid plasma donations at a high frequency out of concern for donor health and quality control, the U.S. allows companies to pay donors and has comparatively loose standards for monitoring their health.

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US-Mexico border arrests continued to drop in September

10/07/19 – CNN

By Geneva Sands

Border Patrol arrests on the US-Mexico border continued to drop in September, marking a steady decline since the high earlier this spring when Trump administration officials struggled to stem the flow of migrants attempting to enter the US.

There were nearly 40,000 arrests on the southern border in September, which was the lowest month this fiscal year, according to a source familiar with the data. For comparison, there were nearly 133,000 apprehensions in May.

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Mexico intercepts 2 trucks crowded with 243 migrants

 

10/04/19 – AP News

Mexican authorities say they have intercepted two trucks carrying 243 migrants in crowded conditions in the southern state of Chiapas.

A government statement says the vehicles were discovered in two separate incidents by federal authorities.

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UN refugee chief asks Mexico to do more for asylum seekers

10/02/19 – Associated Press

The United Nations’ top official for refugees called on Mexico Wednesday to devote more resources to the country’s badly overtaxed refugee aid agency.

High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement that the number of people seeking asylum in Mexico is only expected to grow as the United States makes it more difficult to seek asylum there.

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Mexico finds migrant smuggling ring that earned $40,000/week

09/28/19 – AP News

Mexican officials say they have broken up a human smuggling ring that earned around $40,000 a week helping migrants mostly from South America and India reach the United States.

The Security Ministry said Saturday that on average the group moved 25 migrants a week, receiving Ecuadoreans and Peruvians at the Mexico City airport and Indian nationals at the Cancun airport. They would then gather the migrants in safe houses in the Mexican capital before placing them on buses to the northern city of Mexicali, just south of California.

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