Heavy rains and high temperatures have made the walk from Tapachula, Mexico, to Mexico City even more difficult. The more than 1,200-strong migrant caravan that intends to stay in Mexico due to the new stringent border policies under President Trump includes one Cuban national who says staying in Mexico is a privilege when compared to conditions in her native Cuba.
A Spanish-language report by Noticias Voz e Imagen de Chiapas (NVI) highlights the story of Estela Matus, one of hundreds of Cubans marching toward Mexico City. Despite the group’s realization that the welcome mat at the U.S./Mexico border laid by the Biden administration has been pulled, Matus told NVI that staying in Mexico is still a privilege that offers freedom and a sense of protection that does not exist in her native Cuba.
“Staying in Mexico, we feel privileged, it is not our fault that in Tapachula there is no work, but Cuba is ugly and there is much police abuse against Cubans, we can’t have a business because they take it away from us, only the government officials live well,” she told NVI.
Matus, like more than 1,200 others in the migrant caravan, is marching in protest of the slow-moving refugee and asylum process in Mexico. Many in the group remained in the southern Mexican border city of Tapachula for months, awaiting permits needed to regularize their immigration status in the country.
The protest march appears to be proving fruitful for some within the caravan. On Wednesday, more than 100 members of the caravan were transported back to Tapachula by Mexico’s National Institute of Migration (INM) for processing of their refugee permits. According to NVI, this small portion of the caravan will have their humanitarian refugee permits expedited at the INM facility in Tapachula.
The permits will likely be the best alternative that caravan members can hope for, given the strict immigration enforcement policies now in place in the United States. As reported by Breitbart Texas, President Trump’s strict border policies and a ramping up of interior deportation operations conducted by ICE and other federal agencies have dropped illegal border crossings to a record low level not seen since 1970.
According to CBP, the agency has completed a four-month period ending in September during which no illegal aliens were released into the United States to pursue asylum claims, in comparison to the Biden administration policies that saw the release of thousands daily.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
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