(Tapachula) Venezuelan migrants protested Friday at Mexico’s northern and southern borders against Washington’s decision to automatically deport any Venezuelans who attempt to illegally cross the US border.
Posted at 7:39 p.m.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday that Venezuelans who illegally cross the US border will now be automatically deported to Mexico.
Despite this announcement, in Chiapas, a border state with Guatemala, in southern Mexico, a caravan of about 1,000 Venezuelans was advancing along a highway towards the United States.
In northeastern Mexico, dozens of migrants protested at one of the border bridges connecting the state of Tamaulipas to that of Texas, in the United States, which led to the closure of the road, according to the authorities. local.
“It’s unfair because a lot of us are already tired, exhausted, trying to get through it and they break this news to us like this, it’s really very hard […]. But we will continue “to move forward, assured AFP Sandy Araujo, a 22-year-old Venezuelan.
To cries of “yes we can”, other migrants set off on Thursday evening to Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala, the starting point of the many caravans that have crossed Mexico in recent years to reach the United States. .
In Matamoros, on the border with the US city of Brownsville, dozens of Venezuelans, chained and with their hands painted white as a sign of peace, sought to cross the border over the Gateway Bridge, local media reported.
The US consulate in Matamoros said US authorities had closed the crossing.
On Wednesday, as soon as the new rule came into effect, a first group of around 100 Venezuelans trying to cross the border had been sent back to Ciudad Juárez, in northern Mexico.
In return for the announcement of the closure of its border, Washington promised to establish a humanitarian program to immigrate legally directly from Venezuela. Inspired by the measures in force for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, it should concern 24,000 Venezuelans.
The Biden administration thus hopes to slow down the pace of arrivals. Since October 2021, 155,000 Venezuelans have entered the United States through the Mexican border, a number that has tripled in the space of a year.