Thread: Mexico Removes 6,000 Immigrants From La Bestia Train

Undocumented Immigration News and Reform
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Mexico Removes 6K Immigrants From La Bestia Train

By Scharon Harding (staff@latinpost.com)
First Posted: Aug 27, 2014 01:48 PM EDT

Central American immigrants ride north on top of a freight train on August 6, 2013 near Juchitan, Mexico.

Thousands of Central American migrants ride the trains, known as 'La Bestia', or The Beast, during their long and perilous journey through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. Some of the immigrants are robbed and assaulted by gangs who control the train tops, while others fall asleep and tumble down, losing limbs or perishing under the wheels of the trains. Only a fraction of the immigrants who start the journey in Central America will traverse Mexico completely unscathed - and all this before illegally entering the United States and facing the considerable U.S. border security apparatus designed to track, detain and deport them. (Photo : John Moore/Getty Images)


On Tuesday, Mexican officials stated that they have started pulling migrants off the train known as "La Bestia," or "The Beast," which has carried many undocumented immigrants into the U.S.

According to The Associated Press, Humberto Mayans, head of the Mexican government's southern border improvement plans, said that immigration officials have removed 6,000 migrants from the train.

The Mexican Interior Department said Tuesday that those apprehended were from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where most of the influx of unaccompanied minors are from, and were sent back to their homelands, Fox News Latino reports.

"We won't allow in any way for them to board the trains," Mayans told Radio Formula.

La Bestia is considered dangerous because many have fallen off the train to their deaths. In addition, Mexican officials say that gangs extort money from, rape and kill passengers. In fear of being caught boarding the train, many migrants have resorted to the woods and jungle about two miles away from the town of Arriaga, which seems deserted now that the raids have started.

"That's a lie. It doesn't make us safer," Manuel Villalta, a 31-year-old migrant from Huasapa, El Salvador who hopes to return to his job in U.S. meatpacking plants, said. "Look how we are in the woods, drinking water that can be infected."

Villalta and other migrants plan to board La Bestia as it slows down on a curve. This is much more risky than the previous practice of boarding the train when it stops in a town like Arriaga.

"They won't stop us," Villalta said. "If they detain 100, another 300, 400 will come."

Guillermo Sismit, a 38-year-old Guatemalan, sat alongside about 12 other migrants in the jungle sleeping on cardboard.

"Before we could stay in the town, but now we're exposed to everything in the woods, the animals, the police, the thieves, the narcos," he said.

http://www.latinpost.com/articles/20...-la-bestia.htm

by Tony Lee 27 Aug 2014, 10:24 AM PDT
breitbart



Central American migrants are upset that Mexican officials are yanking people trying to get on the freight train known as "The Beast" in Southern Mexico. Migrants risk their lives and limbs to hop on the trains that bring them near the U.S. Mexico border.

According to the Associated Press, Mexican officials "have pulled 6,000 migrants" off "The Beast" during various raids, causing them to flee "to the woods and low jungle."

"We won't allow in any way for them to board the trains," a Mexican official in charge of the country's southern border said on local radio, according to the Associated Press. In addition, Mexican officials said that the nearly 6,000 "migrants were from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and had been returned to their countries."

As the Associated Press noted, "Mexican officials say the raids seek to ensure migrants' safety, arguing that they often fall or are pushed off the train by criminal gangs that kidnap, rape, kill and extort money," but migrants intent on coming to America are having none of it. They reportedly jeered when they heard those claims.

"That's a lie. It doesn't make us safer," a migrant from Honduras told outlet. "Look how we are in the woods, drinking water that can be infected." He said he "will hop the moving train when it slows at a curve just down the tracks, a much more dangerous practice than hopping the train when it stops in town," and declared, "They won't stop us. If they detain 100, another 300, 400 will come."
Another migrant said officials "come looking for anyone who has a tattoo" and some Mexican citizens have reportedly even been detained in raids.

Mexican officials have also announced plans to speed up "The Beast" to prevent people from jumping on it as U.S. officials expect another surge at the border when the summer temperatures cool down. Since October of last year, there have been at least 63,000 illegal immigrant juveniles who have been detained at the border. Federal authorities expect at least 150,000 more in the next fiscal year.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...-Off-The-Beast