What Happens to Children Caught in Mexico's Rising Migrant Crackdown? Lori Jane Gliha - Al Jazeera
go to original November 1, 2015

It was nearly midnight by the time we weaved our way through the pothole-ridden streets of Tapachula, Mexico, on the way to the largest migrant detention center in Latin America.

Beyond the lively trumpeting of a late-night mariachi band and the street vendors peddling snacks to a hungry few, we encountered the massive green and white building, with the words, “Instituto Nacional de Migracion Delegacion Federal en Chiapas,” written on its side.

There were no windows, so we couldn’t see the people on the inside waiting to be deported to their home countries, but we knew there were hundreds of them, including many children who had tried to make the trek to the United States by themselves only to be nabbed by Mexican authorities.

Compared to last year, the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, seems to have diminished. Despite a dramatic spike in August 2015 at the Rio Grande Valley sector in South Texas, the number of apprehensions of unaccompanied children by U.S. Customs and Border Protection is down more than 40 percent, compared to last year’s numbers.

Mexico’s apprehensions and deportations, meanwhile, are on the rise. After announcing an upgraded southern border strategy in 2014, Mexican authorities deported 60 percent more children during the first few months of 2015 than during the same time period the previous year.

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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