The bridge between Mexico and the United States under which more than 10,000 migrants sleep

Drafting
BBC News World

13 minutes

Migrants seeking asylum in the United States walk along the Rio Grande near the International Bridge between Mexico and the United States, while waiting to be processed, in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, on September 16, 2021. — Caption,

The US government is receiving a growing number of migrant arrivals at the border these days.

The bridge that connects Del Río (Texas) with Ciudad Acuña (Mexico) has become a makeshift camp with more than 10,000 people who have massively crossed the border with the United States.

Migrants sleep under the bridge in dire conditions, having crossed the icy waters of the Rio Grande, waiting for the authorities to process their asylum applications.

The makeshift camp has few basic services and some migrants, enduring temperatures as high as 37 ° C, are returning to Mexico for supplies.

Migrants are mostly Haitians but there are also some Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans, say the reports from the authorities.

Many of them are part of a larger wave of migrants heading north, much of whom reached Brazil and other parts of South America after the 2010 earthquake, the Washington Post reports.

Image source, Reuters

Caption,

Migrants seeking asylum in the US bathe in the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande), on the border with Mexico.

“A chaos”

Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano told Reuters, more than 10,500 Migrants were under the Del Rio International Bridge Thursday night.

Ramsés Colón, a 41-year-old Afro-Cuban asylum seeker who worked in Peru to save money for the trip, said the Del Río camp is “chaos.”

“You stand there among thousands with your ticket, waiting for your turn,” he told the Washington Post. It refers to the tickets with numbers that the authorities give to the migrants while they wait to be processed.

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“Temporary stop”

The Border Patrol said in a statement that it was increasing staffing at Del Rio to facilitate a “safe, humane and orderly process”.

“To prevent injuries from heat-related illnesses, the shaded area under the Del Rio International Bridge is serving as a temporary stop site while migrants wait to be taken into the custody of the USBP (US Border Patrol).” added.

Drinking water, towels and portable toilets were provided, the statement added.

Record influx

Since taking office in January, Joe Biden, who promised to reform U.S. immigration, has created a task force to reunify migrant children with their families, halted construction of Donald Trump’s border wall, and called for revisions to the legal immigration programs canceled by its predecessor.

But it is also experiencing a record influx of migrants on the southern border of the United States, including hundreds of unaccompanied children, who are being held in US centers.