FRONTERA COROZAL, Mexico — On the day this week that Mexico imposed new measures to shut down migrant crossings at its southern border, some 1,200 made the trip at a single remote jungle outpost without showing a document to anyone.
Their reasons for heading north are familiar: violence, an inability to support their families, the devastation wrought by two major hurricanes in November and egged on by rampant misinformation. The family left Honduras after Ponce’s husband lost his construction job and was unable to find another. They left two older children with relatives.
They were led onto boats with outboard motors, everything organized and out in the open. When they reached the other side, only Mexico lay between them and the U.S. border. Much of that traffic becomes clandestine in Mexico as smugglers pack migrants into semi-trailers and vans or put them on buses or airplanes with fake documents. Often they only reappear at the U.S. border.
“They want to pretend they are doing operations, for the press,” Sop Xivir said. “In practice there isn’t much control.” The traffic had slowed significantly in 2020 due to the pandemic, but now it’s like early 2019 all over again, she said. “A few days ago, in a half-hour ... we saw hundreds walking along a mountain path."
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