A dozen migrants hiked down railroad tracks in a desolate desert outside Mexico City, attempting to board a freight train to the US. They described their foggy awareness of the U.S. presidential election, which was just days away, and their role in it.
Santiago Marulanda, 38, from Venezuela, intended to reach California with his wife and two children. “I don’t know much about American politics,” he added. Whoever wins wins. But I know this: Whoever wins, immigrants will struggle.”
“Trump has a big mouth, but he doesn’t scare me,” said Honduran Kevin Ociel Canaca, 25, who was going to Houston.
He left his 3-year-old son behind after being deported last year after living and working there. “If you’re a migrant, you’ll suffer whoever is president,” Ociel remarked. Even if you work well, someone will want you deported. No matter.”
In the first three years of the Biden administration, record numbers of asylum seekers crossed the border. Harris campaigned on the president’s June asylum limits, which drastically cut migrant arrivals.
In response to Washington’s pressure, Mexican officials have intercepted northern travelers on roads, trains, and airports. Nearly a million migrants were imprisoned in Mexico in the first eight months, more than quadruple the number in 2023.
Mexican authorities have sent most of these Latin American migrants to the south near Guatemala rather than deporting them.
Many turn back and continue north, dodging criminals, corrupt cops, and Mexican immigration officers. “The Mexican migra has detained us multiple times, taken away our cellphones, beat us up, and sent us back to the south,” said Yancarlis Caldera, 29, one of hundreds of migrants living in a squalid tent city outside Mexico City’s colonial-era Roman Catholic Church of Santa Cruz and Solitude
She and her partner left Venezuela in September with three children.
“I’ve been all over Mexico,” she continued. “I now know Mexico better than my country.” Squatters in the tent city use CBP One daily to get asylum appointments at the border and enter the US. Appointments are few, and weeks or months may pass without success.
As the U.S. election approaches, many migrants prioritize their daily quest. Trump promises to dismantle CBP One.
“What will we do without CPB One?” inquired Caldera, standing in front of her rain-protected tent with a black plastic sheet. “No one is returning to Venezuela. Nothing for us there. Somehow, we’ll reach the US.”
That was exactly the sentiment of residents questioned along the train tracks north of Mexico City, where migrants had long taken La Bestia freight trains north. The Mexican crackdown has reduced the hundreds of people beside the tracks, but many groups were still trying.
“We’ve been waiting for months for an appointment through CBP One,” said Dinorah López Rojas, 25, who arrived from Guatemala with her brother, husband, and uncle. All wanted to reach the border to Southern California, appointment or not.
“Yes, we’ve heard that there may be deportations after the US elections,” she added. But I doubt the candidates. I hope we don’t get sent back after risking so much.”
Seeing an impending train rumbling, López and her family grabbed their belongings in hopes of boarding.
Reference: U.S.-bound migrants say the election doesn’t matter: ‘You’re going to suffer whoever is president’