(TheRedWire.com) – Mexican authorities used bulldozers to dismantle a makeshift migrant camp near the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, on Wednesday. This camp, established in late 2022 and situated adjacent to Brownsville, Texas, had once housed up to 1,500 migrants. However, many had left in recent months, attempting to enter the U.S.
The camp clearance coincided with a high-level meeting in Mexico City’s National Palace, where U.S. and Mexican officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, convened to address the significant increase in migrants at the U.S. border.
Officials from Matamoros clarified that the operation primarily involved the removal of deserted tents. Segismundo Doguín, a local official of Mexico’s immigration agency, explained to The Associated Press that their focus was on clearing out unoccupied tents.
Despite this, a Honduran migrant named José reported that about 200 migrants, including himself, were abruptly asked to leave the camp as the clearance operation commenced. He described a hasty and chaotic evacuation, where migrants had little time to react and avoid potential accidents.
As a result of the clearance, some migrants relocated within the encampment, while others chose to flee. Around 70 migrants crossed the Rio Grande into the U.S. following the camp’s removal. It remains unclear if there were any casualties or injuries during these crossings, especially in light of recent drownings in the river.
The U.S. and Mexico are actively discussing strategies to reduce illegal border crossings, urging each country to take more robust measures. In the current month, the southwest U.S. border witnessed as many as 10,000 migrant arrests per day.
In response to the crisis, the U.S. has temporarily closed crucial border rail crossings into Texas and urged Mexico to intensify efforts to prevent migrants from using freight cars, buses, and trucks to cross the border.
President López Obrador of Mexico has expressed his willingness to cooperate but is also seeking financial aid from the U.S. for migrants’ home countries and the reduction or elimination of sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela.
Mexico has allocated a significant portion of its military and National Guard forces, approximately 11% of the total, to enforce immigration laws.
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