A group of migrants deported from the United States to Mexico by the Donald Trump Administration rioted near midnight this Sunday at the Siglo XXI migrant station in Tapachula, Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. The foreigners, mostly Cubans and Venezuelans, demanded their release from the migrant center located north of the city, denouncing that since their arrival in Mexico they have been kept isolated and in adverse conditions.
The protest escalated to the point that some of the dissenters tried to start a fire by setting fire to one of the mats they use to rest. The incident prompted the rapid mobilization of police forces, the Mexican Army, and the National Guard, who arrived at the site to regain control of the situation. At least 30 patrol cars from security forces alerted and alarmed locals, fearing that the migrants’ demonstration would take on more violent tones.
The National Institute of Migration (INM) reported this Sunday that as a result of the events, two Venezuelan migrants – identified as Henderson Chopite and David Caballero – were transferred to the state capital, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, to be processed for the disturbances and to begin the deportation protocol to their country of origin.
It also clarified that in the operation to restore order, no migrant, staff, or police officer was injured, after rumors spread of the death of a foreigner inside Siglo XXI.
The Siglo XXI migrant station, considered the largest in Latin America, has been the scene of several riots and escapes of detained people. However, since June 6, 2022, no such event had been recorded; then Venezuelan migrants protested and took control of the facilities to demand their release.
The new revolt rekindles the discussion about security in migrant detention centers in Mexico, after the fire that claimed the lives of at least 40 people in Ciudad Juárez in March 2023.
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Human rights activist Luis García Villagrán explains that migrants deported by the United States are locked up, without any reason, for up to 10 or more days, when they should be released, in addition to the corruption he says they are victims of by migration authorities. “Relatives in Cuba have reported that their children, parents, siblings, or acquaintances start being asked for money in Tapachula, and they are also forced to hire lawyers affiliated with the Migration delegation in Chiapas, to negotiate large sums of money in exchange for their freedom,” he points out.
The director of the organization Centro de Dignificación Humana also describes the situations to which those expelled from the United States are subjected in southern Mexico as “mental and physical torture.” “All this could not be endured by the Cuban migrants and others of different nationalities locked up in this prison; they could not endure the extortions and mistreatment that accumulated with the time they were locked up by ICE in the United States, which is why they rioted,” he adds.
Since February, activists have documented that hundreds of migrants have been abandoned to their fate in Tapachula, which they have called the prison city. These are foreigners who lived for decades in various cities in the United States; however, they were detained for offenses, and in the blink of an eye, they are stranded at the Mexico-Guatemala border.
The condition of hundreds of people expelled by the U.S. government worsens in Tapachula due to delays and obstacles that the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) places on asylum seekers. Many of them are even rejected upon arrival at the agency responsible for granting refuge in Mexico, being accused of having violated laws in the United States and remaining stateless on Mexican soil. Added to this is the lack of job and life opportunities for people who, after having built a work and social life in the United States, now face xenophobia and social rejection in an unfamiliar land.
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