Mexican officials tried to round up children of asylum-seekers at tent camp
Parents fear officials will return to take children
by: Sandra Sanchez
Posted: Nov 1, 2019 / 03:09 PM PDT / Updated: Jan 28, 2020 / 10:15 AM PST
MATAMOROS, Mexico (Border Report) — U.S. asylum-seekers living in a tent encampment at the base of the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico, across from Brownsville, Texas, said that Matamoros government officials on Friday tried to round up their children and force them to relocate to an unknown shelter further in the interior of Mexico.
Several families told Border Report that Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, or DIF, a local child service's organization run by the government of Matamoros, sent DIF agents in cars early Friday and with a bus to the tent city. The agents told the parents that their children must relocate to a shelter away from the border, where the camp is located. The parents were given the option of going with the children, if they wanted.
"They came in the morning and told us we needed to get ready we're leaving, but we didn't want to go," Yamali Flores, of Honduras, said in Spanish.
Yamali Flores, of Honduras, says Mexican officials tried to round up her three children on Nov. 1, 2019. She is among 1,600 asylum-seekers living in a tent city at the base of the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico. (Border Report Photo/Sandra Sanchez).
Flores has been living since early August at the tent encampment with her husband and three children, ages 7, 9, and 13. "The United States needs to help from the other side because we don't want to be in mexico. We need protection," she said.
Shiama Bukirwa, of Uganda, arrived at the tent city on Thursday cold and hungry and scared and with her two children, including 2-year-old Jasmine. She said DIF officials approached her Friday morning and tried to take her children.
"They told me that they would take my children so I have two options: One option is I go with them to the shelter; if I don't go with them they'd take the kids by force," Bukirwa said.
Shiama Bukirwa, of Uganda, said Mexican officials tried to take her children to a shelter on Friday morning. (Border Report Photo/Sandra Sanchez).
None of the families we spoke with said they sent their children and eventually the DIF officials left. And all of them expressed fear that the Mexican officials would return and try to force them out again.
Helen Perry, a nurse practitioner volunteering in Matamoros, Mexico, with Global Response Management plays with a child on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019. (Border Report Photo/Sandra Sanchez).
Helen Perry, who was volunteering in a medical tent with two doctors from the nonprofit organization Global Response Management told Border Report that her staff witnessed DIF officials approach families and tell them they were taking their children.
"They were telling people that because of the conditions they were going to take their kids. That's obviously very concerning change of events especially because that falls as a human rights violation," said Perry, a nurse practitioner from Jackson, Florida.
"These are not people choosing to live in these conditions. These are people being placed in these conditions because of the safety situation in Matamoros. I feel like it's a little counter-productive to take peoples' children when instead we could be working to improve the conditions that they can stay in safe places," Perry said as a line of asylum-seekers came to her for medical help.
Over 1,600 asylum-seeking migrants are living in a tent encampment at the base of the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico. (Border Report Photo/Sandra Sanchez).
U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, whose district includes Brownsville, said his office was told that federal Mexican officials intervened and told local officials that the migrants are on federal property and cannot be rounded up.
The asylum-seekers are commonly called MPPs because they remain in Mexico under President Donald Trump's Migrant Protection Protocols program. This program began in South Texas in mid-July. Now, there are more than 1,600 MPPs living in the encampment, a filthy tent city at the base of the bridge.
It is unknown how many of the 1,600 homeless MPPs are children. Border Report visited the tent on Thursday and Friday and saw many children there. After the raid on Friday, there were visibly fewer children running about.
Rep. Vela said Friday's events could have resulted in a new wave of family separations, this time in Mexico. In May 2018, the United States began family separation of detained migrants, which prompted worldwide concerns and condemnation of the program, which eventually was shut down.
"This 'Remain In Mexico' policy is nothing more than an attempt at family separation," Vela told Border Report. "This new twist takes the idea of family separation to a new extreme, if what we are hearing is true."
Vela said the right thing for the American government to do is "retract the "Remain in Mexico" policy. If we allow them to stay in the United States while they await their adjudication hearings, then most of them will be together staying with families."
Visit the BorderReport.com homepage for the latest exclusive stories and breaking news about issues along the United States-Mexico border
More Border Report Tour Stories
President Trump extends national emergency declaration at U.S.-Mexico border
WASHINGTON (BorderReport) — President Donald Trump extended a proclamation declaring an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border for another year.
On Friday, he said he would continue the national emergency designation until Feb. 15, 2022. He initially put one in place through Proclamation 9844 on Feb. 15, 2019 "to deal with the border security and humanitarian crisis" there.
New Mexico congresswoman plans fight for funds to complete border wall
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The border wall is crucial to keeping drugs and unauthorized migrants out of the country, so halting construction will have dire consequences for Americans, a New Mexico congresswoman says.
The comments by U.S. Rep. Yvetter Herrell, R-New Mexico, come as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office, bringing campaign promises to not only stop the construction of his predecessor's steel bollard barrier with Mexico but also tear down the "legal wall" of procedural rules that keeps asylum seekers on the other side of the border.
Mexican police chasing 'Bin Laden,' Sinaloa cartel associates
El PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Mexican authorities say they've arrested a high-ranking member of a Sinaloa cartel proxy in Chihuahua and are now looking for his boss, a drug-trafficker nicknamed "Bin Laden."
Hector Manuel M. M., also knownn as "El Chapo MM" or "302" was arrested Wednesday in the city of Parral, said Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Augusto Peniche.
UPDATE: Fire at Wind Wolves Preserve grows to 200 acres
KCSO: Officer-involved shooting took place after 3 suspects attempted to kidnap federal agent during undercover investigation