|
kidnapping, and extortion |
0 |
49 migrantes que habían sido secuestrados por un cartel en el estado de Nuevo León fueron hallados por soldados mexicanos. Nueve migrantes fueron hallados el martes cerca de una carretera en el estado de Nuevo León. Otros 40 fueron hallados deambulando por otros caminos o refugiándose en casas entre el miércoles y el jueves. Entre los migrantes había 19 hondureños, 14 haitianos, siete venezolanos, seis salvadoreños, dos brasileños y un cubano. La compañía del autobús reportó inicialmente el secuestro el martes, diciéndole a la prensa local que había recibido una demanda de mil 500 dólares por migrante para dejarlos en libertad. |
https://diario.mx/nacional/localizan-a-49-migrantes-secuestrados-20230518-2057030.html |
|
extortion |
1 |
Reporting on May 25, 2023, the Nogales-based Kino Border Initiative (KBI), stated, “Organized crime and authorities in Mexico and the U.S. strip asylum seekers of their resources on the journey, exacerbating their suffering.” They cited the case of Admiel [name changed to protect privacy], who faced extortion many times after fleeing Venezuela. In Guatemala, the police demanded 600 quetzales ($77 USD). In Mexico City, Mexican immigration agents took 3,200 pesos ($179 USD). |
https://borderoversight.org/event/ |
|
attempted kidnapping |
5 |
On May 31, 2023, two Haitian couples, traveling with an 11-month-old infant, survived an attempted kidnapping as they approached the DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, Sonora, waiting to seek U.S. asylum.
“We were walking toward here. A truck with three men stopped and they got out and started coming toward us. ‘RUN!’ I shouted to my wife and baby. We managed to escape.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/a-line-that-barely-budges-u-s-limiting-access-to-asylum/ |
| 06/09/2023 |
sexual assault, robbery, attempted kidnapping |
1 |
A Colombian LGBTQI+ woman, who fled persecution in Colombia by the Colombian police on account of her sexual orientation and was displaced by an armed group, was waiting in line at the Nogales port of entry to seek asylum protection. She had been sexually assaulted by a Mexican female police officer while on a bus toward northern Mexico. The officer instructed her to enter the bus bathroom where she stripped her of her clothing and digitally penetrated her vaginally without use of a glove, alleging she was transporting cocaine, and then robbed her of her money. Upon arrival at a bus station in Sonora, she experienced an attempted kidnapping. “I’m afraid to be here. I’m afraid criminal groups will try to kidnap me again." |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/a-line-that-barely-budges-u-s-limiting-access-to-asylum/ |
| 06/09/2023 |
enforced disappearance |
2 |
A group of Colombian migrants was kidnapped for a day by Mexican immigration agents in collusion with organized crime. Upon their release, the immigration agents told them to go to Nogales where they will be safe, but they do not feel safe. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/a-line-that-barely-budges-u-s-limiting-access-to-asylum/ |
| 06/09/2023 |
robbery, threats |
2 |
In mid-May 2023, two young migrant men, who were waiting to seek asylum outside the Nogales port of entry, left the line to shower. On their way back, they were apprehended by an organized crime group and were searched, questioned, threatened, and robbed of their belongings. They reported the incident to the local police, but the police did not do anything. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/a-line-that-barely-budges-u-s-limiting-access-to-asylum/ |
|
Kidnapping, beatings, extortion |
19 |
In Sonoyta, Sonora, in June 2023, a group of Ecuadorean migrants consisting of nine adults and 10 children were rescued by Mexican authorities. They were kidnapped in an abandoned house and filmed while being beaten to demand ransom payment from relatives in the U.S. |
https://www.milenio.com/estados/rescatan-19-migrantes-ecuatorianos-victimas-secuestro-sonora |
| 07/06/2023 |
rape, threats |
2 |
Cindy, a 23-year-old from Honduras, hesitated for weeks to approach the U.S. border, even after she was raped repeatedly in the Matamoros camp and in a house nearby by men she believed to be part of a cartel. Cindy, who Reuters is identifying only by her first name due to the nature of the attacks, said the men threatened to “disappear” her 3-year-old son if she reported the assaults to Mexican authorities, according to interviews and a written report from the psychiatrist who evaluated and accounts from her attorney. Desperate after multiple assaults, and unable to secure an appointment on the CBP One app, she and her son walked up to the international bridge on May 21. She said they were allowed to enter and given a notice to appear in immigration court in Houston in August. |
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-immigration-asylum-border/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
rape, attempted rape, threats |
1 |
A Honduran woman fleeing persecution, who was waiting for a CBP One appointment, was violently raped in a makeshift tent in the Matamoros encampment in late May 2023 and threatened with death if she told anyone. The rapist returned in early June 2023 and attempted to rape her again, but she managed to defend herself and escaped. After this, she received death threats by phone.
“I am afraid for my life here. Afraid that I will be killed, kidnapped, or that they’ll do something to me. In my country, I’m a professional. I had a career. I’m not coming to work. I came because my life was in danger. And something that had never happened to me – a rape – happened to me here.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
beatings, robbery, enforced dissapearance |
1 |
A Latin American man seeking asylum was beaten unconscious and subjected to an enforced disappearance when he was kidnapped by men dressed as Mexican officials in Reynosa. He managed to escape after one night, but due to the extreme physical violence, he continues to suffer from severe headaches, gastrointestinal issues, and other symptoms. His kidnappers also robbed him of his phone. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
kidnapping, rape, human trafficking |
1 |
A Latin American woman, who was trying to obtain a CBP One appointment, was kidnapped, held captive, and abused for about a month and a half in Reynosa. She was able to escape her captors, only to be taken and held captive a second time. Her captors trafficked her to drug dealers who raped her on several different occasions.
She said: “I was held captive at this house for about two months and I thought the only way I would leave the house was if I were dead." |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
kidnapping, rape, threats, beatings, torture |
50 |
A Venezuelan woman, waiting for a CBP One appointment with her minor son and her adult sister, was kidnapped and held for 12 days in Reynosa in June 2023. Their abductors threatened to take their organs if their families did not pay a ransom. A cartel member raped the Venezuelan mother.
“He threatened to kill my son and sister and threatened me to stay quiet. We were terrified each time the door opened and our abusers entered. We prayed and prayed. We feel completely unsafe here in Mexico. We’re terrified to go outside; afraid we’ll be taken again."
They were placed in a room with 50 people from China, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, and Russia, including kids as young as two years old, all on top of each other. Their kidnappers threatened and beat people, including the children.
“We witnessed them [the cartel] taser men with electricity who screamed in pain right in front of us and severely beat men if the transfer payment hadn’t come through. My son cried a lot, begging to leave. They’d also give drugs to the teenage children.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
kidnapping, threats, assault, torture, extortion |
4 |
Two Venezuelan young adults, one minor sibling, and their girlfriend who were waiting for a CBP One appointment were intercepted by a car while walking in Reynosa in June. They were kidnapped and held hostage for three days. During that time, they were all physically assaulted and the women were tortured for ransom.
The kidnappers threatened “[i]f you don’t pay, we’ll cut off your fingers.” The family’s relatives paid the ransom and they were released. Their kidnappers took their photos. Following the kidnapping, they escaped Reynosa and returned to Matamoros. In Matamoros, they were prevented from approaching the U.S. port of entry by Mexican immigration officers. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
kidnapping, rape, threats, robbery, extortion |
4 |
A Venezuelan family with adolescent and preschool-aged children was kidnapped by a cartel in early June in Reynosa while waiting for a CBP One appointment and held for 10 days. During their kidnapping, the mother was twice sexually abused by a cartel member. They witnessed intense beatings of other migrant men.
“It was horrible. You don’t know if you’ll get out alive. My kids cried and cried. They wanted to leave, wanted to cross [to the U.S.]; they didn’t want to be here.”
Upon their release, they received threatening calls demanding payment of more money and had to register for CBP One again as the phone they had previously used to register was stolen by the cartel.
“We’ve been waiting for an appointment that doesn’t arrive. It [the app] doesn’t care about the risk [we face] or our human rights.” “There is no authority here. There was no security. Even hotels aren’t safe, they collaborate.” “There is no sense of peace. I ask God to help us get out of here. My family is in danger here. At night you hear gunfire. We’re terrified to go out on the street. We aren’t safe here in Mexico. At least, thank God, we are alive.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery |
5 |
A Latin American family with two elementary-school-aged children was kidnapped in Reynosa in late May while waiting for a CBP One appointment and held for 13 days. The family’s relatives with young children were also kidnapped with them. While kidnapped, the mother was sexually assaulted by cartel members. She prayed they wouldn’t sexually abuse her daughter.
“It was a difficult experience for the children. They didn’t eat. They cried. They wanted to escape, but we couldn’t.” The family was released but the cartel kept their phones and money, so they had no resources to buy a smartphone to use the CBP One app again. A few days after the family’s relatives and their young children were released, they were kidnapped again. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
attempted kidnapping, robbery, threats |
4 |
A Venezuelan family, including a teenage son and a young daughter, rented a room in Matamoros while waiting to obtain a CBP One appointment. One day at dawn, masked men identifying themselves as members of the cartel in charge in Matamoros, entered and ransacked the house, stealing the family’s money, and attempted to grab the teenage son. The adult male in the family defended the son and the masked men threatened him, saying that if they find him in Matamoros, they will kill him. They fled the house and approached the port of entry where Mexican immigration officers told them, “[i]t’s not our problem.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
attempted kidnapping |
3 |
A Venezuelan woman who was waiting for a CBP One appointment experienced an attempted kidnapping by a taxi driver in Reynosa. She escaped and joined a group of other women to walk to the bus terminal together, but a black truck circled them and tried to abduct two women. She traveled to Matamoros where she slept on the street outside a shelter and was informed that a man who had her photo was looking for her. She sought safety elsewhere and was told that two men who said they were her cousins had come the night before to look for her. She is in hiding. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
assault |
1 |
A Colombian elderly woman, travelling alone and waiting to seek protection in the U.S., was physically attacked and verbally assaulted in the Matamoros camp by a member of the cartel.
“The terror I felt that night was the worst in my life. They [the cartel] don’t respect if you’re an older woman, a child, a pregnant woman. People are taken from the camp and disappeared, and no one can say anything.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
rape |
1 |
Two Venezuelan women who were waiting for a CBP One appointment in a makeshift encampment inhabited by asylum seekers in Matamoros reported that a friend of theirs had been raped in her tent. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
enforced disappearance, extortion |
3 |
A Venezuelan couple with their two-year old child had been waiting over 15 days sleeping outside the Ciudad Juárez port of entry without shelter, waiting to be processed to seek asylum. They recounted that while aboard a bus, Mexican authorities subjected them to an enforced disappearance: Mexican immigration police ordered them off the bus and handed them over to a cartel that kidnapped them for 15 days and demanded a $1,500 USD ransom per person to release them.
“We wanted to file a police report, but you never know if the police are good or are one of them.” “I want to try to pass [through the port of entry] as quickly as possible because the situation here is really bad – even the taxi drivers will sell you. From here on that way [signaling toward the city center], you run risk. We are safer staying here by the port." |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
robbery |
1 |
An LGBTQ+ and HIV+ Venezuelan young adult waiting to seek U.S. asylum was traveling alone and living in a tent in Matamoros. The young adult's phone was stolen and they had no means to replace it to access the CBP One app. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
assault, beatings, robbery |
1 |
A Chinese man who spoke Mandarin and did not know English or any of the CBP One app languages, was attacked, beaten, and robbed while waiting in Matamoros to seek U.S. asylum. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
sexual assault |
1 |
A Haitian mother was traveling with her husband and young child while trying to obtain a CBP One appointment. While on a bus, a Mexican immigration officer targeted only them for a search of their belongings while on a bus and inappropriately groped her breasts and searched inside her pants. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
beatings, aggravated assault |
2 |
A Venezuelan woman staying at a shelter in Tijuana said her husband witnessed Mexican police officers beating up Haitians across the street from the asylum seekers' shelter. He intervened to defend them and the Mexican officers pulled a gun on him. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
extortion, beatings |
3 |
A Venezuelan mother, travelling with her two adult sons aboard a bus en route to Matamoros to seek protection in the U.S., was stopped by Mexican immigration officials who demanded money from passengers. One son gave the officer money, but the other son did not have any to give. The officer hit the son who did not provide payment and when the mother defended her son, the officer hit her on the mouth.
“The authorities treated me like trash. Psychologically, you feel like trash.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
| 07/12/2023 |
extortion |
2 |
Ecuadorian Indigenous and non-Indigenous families in Ciudad Juárez reported that Mexican immigration officers at a bus terminal during their journey told them that their CBP One registration printout was “worthless” because they were Ecuadorian and not nationals of one of the four countries that can benefit from the process. The families were then extorted. “It’s a daily reality,” the Ecuadorian father fleeing threats to his life in Ecuador shared. “Those of us from Ecuador and Haiti are removed from the bus, our national identification cards are taken, and we’re placed in their [Mexican immigration officers’] cars. We’re threatened that if we don’t pay them, they’ll deport us. We’re charged anywhere from 50 to 500 pesos. Because of this, we’ve had to walk a lot to avoid the bus.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/refugee-protection-travesty/ |
|
kidnapping |
3 |
In July 2023, a Colombian young woman, her Venezuelan partner, and their three-month-old baby were kidnapped for twenty days in Ciudad Juárez, causing them to miss their CBP One appointment.
“They told us that they were going to kill my son, many things, so I left traumatized, I'm afraid of a car stopping, I'm afraid of anything, that's why I want to cross now.” |
https://www.forbes.com.mx/inseguridad-crece-frontera-norte-mexico-secuestro-migrantes/ |
|
kidnapping, torture, extortion |
1 |
Omar,* a Kyrgyz asylum seeker, shared that Mexican immigration officials had first extorted him when he arrived at an airport in Oaxaca, Mexico. He was traveling with a group of eight other people from Kyrgyzstan and each of them had to pay $100 to be able to leave immigration detention. The Kyrgyz group traveled through Mexico and, as they approached Reynosa, cartel members pulled up in a pickup truck and tried to kidnap them. The eight people that Omar was traveling with were able to escape, but cartel members captured him and took him to a local safehouse where they tortured him by lighting his arms on fire with lighters. More than half of the skin from Omar’s elbows to the tip of his fingers on both arms were covered with third degree burns. He did not have the money he needed for the ransom, but his fellow travelers managed to raise $4,000 to secure his release. Though Omar had been tortured in Reynosa, INM officers in Reynosa turned him away even after he showed them the third degree burns on his arms. He was not able to approach the Reynosa-McAllen/Hidalgo International Bridge to seek entry to the United States because he had not secured a CBP One appointment. |
https://nipnlg.org/sites/default/files/2023-07/2023_Facing-An-Impossible-Choice.pdf |
|
kidnapping, extortion, beatings |
2 |
Two young men from Honduras and Cuba in their early twenties were kidnapped from a bus stop in Reynosa by members of a cartel. The cartels held them hostage and badly beat them while they extorted their relatives in the United States for money for their release. |
https://nipnlg.org/sites/default/files/2023-07/2023_Facing-An-Impossible-Choice.pdf |
|
kidnapping |
6 |
A group of six Kyrgyz people were kidnapped by cartel members in Reynosa right outside the gates of a shelter that they were attempting to enter. |
https://nipnlg.org/sites/default/files/2023-07/2023_Facing-An-Impossible-Choice.pdf |
|
kidnapping, assault |
1 |
An advocate reported that an asylum seeker who had been held captive in Reynosa by the local cartel had managed to escape and make it onto the Reynosa-McAllen/Hidalgo International Bridge in the middle of the night. His arms were still bound, yet INM officials pulled him off the bridge and returned him to Reynosa, where he doubtlessly would be in danger of being kidnapped or killed by his former captors. |
https://nipnlg.org/sites/default/files/2023-07/2023_Facing-An-Impossible-Choice.pdf |
|
kidnapping, extortion |
80 |
El sacerdote de la Casa del Migrante de Ciudad Juárez, Francisco Javier Bueno, señaló que los migrantes también les han mencionado que antes de llegar a Villa Ahumada son extorsionados con 150 dólares para que puedan seguir su camino, por personas vestidas con el uniforme del Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM). También informó que sólo durante la primera quincena de julio, al menos 80 personas narraron a las agrupaciones locales que apoyan a los migrantes, que fueron víctimas de secuestro en su trayecto a esta frontera. |
https://diario.mx/estado/repuntan-las-narrativas-de-secuestro-y-extorsionm-en-migrantes-20230726-2080323.html |
|
kidnapping |
11 |
Un migrante venezolano fue testigo de cómo once migrantes Hondureños y Guatemaltecos que viajaban en el mismo camión que él fueron secuestrados por hombres armados y encapuchados. Esto ocurrió en camino hacia Ciudad Juárez, en Chihuahua. |
https://diario.mx/estado/repuntan-las-narrativas-de-secuestro-y-extorsionm-en-migrantes-20230726-2080323.html |
|
attempted extortion |
1 |
Pablo Doe is a citizen of Honduras attempting to apply for asylum after fleeing gang violence and extortion in April 2023. In early-July 2023, Pablo went to the Paso Del Norte Bridge in El Paso, Texas, to seek asylum. Before he arrived at the bridge, a group of armed men in a civilian car stopped him and told him he was not going to cross without paying them $600 to enter the bridge. He instead returned to Ciudad Juárez to wait. To date, Pablo has been unable to obtain a CBP One appointment or access the U.S. asylum process at a POE. |
https://cgrs.uclawsf.edu/legal-document/complaint-2 |
|
aggravated assault |
20 |
Elementos de la Guardia Nacional dispararon en contra de migrantes en calles de Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. En el video se observan al menos 20 migrantes en el campamento que fue atacado. “El tren se para aquí en está área, entonces vinieron los policías y les dijeron sálganse, sálganse de aquí, había personas que estaban dormidas. Entonces los agarraban a patadas y empujones, y ya después empezó a hacer la tirazón, a disparar. Hacían disparos al aire, hay muchas personas que las piedras que levantaron los tiros, les pegaron, salieron cortados, lastimados, la verdad es algo bien feo”, dijo Eli H. B. C. originario de Honduras y quien lleva dos meses en Ciudad Juárez esperando poder cruzar a Estados Unidos. |
https://laverdadjuarez.com/2023/07/27/guardia-nacional-dispara-contra-migrantes-en-ciudad-juarez-video-exhibe-la-agresion/ |
|
kidnapping |
154 |
En Sonoyta, agentes del Instituto Nacional de Migración lograron rescatar a un total de 154 migrantes provenientes de Asia, Africa y Sudamerica. En una primera acción, personal del INM rescató de una casa en Sonoyta a 46 personas migrantes: 24 de India, 19 de Mauritania y tres de Senegal. Ellos llevaban 4 días retenidos.
La segunda acción se ubicó en los alrededores de la Central Camionera de Sonoyta. Se identificaron 108 personas de las siguientes nacionalidades: 41 de Egipto, 34 de Ecuador, 28 de Mauritania, cuatro de Senegal y uno de Angola. Entre ellos se encontraban 78 adultos (73 hombres y cinco mujeres), ocho núcleos familiares con 14 adultos y 12 menores y cuatro niños no acompañados. |
https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/rescatan-migrantes-asia-africa-en-sonora/1600304 |
|
kidnapping |
4 |
Four Venezuelan young adults were kidnapped at gunpoint by armed men in Matamoros in late July 2023. |
https://www.reforma.com/plagian-a-cuatro-migrantes-venezolanos-en-matamoros/ar2648888 |
| 08/04/2023 |
kidnapping |
4 |
Miembros de la Fuerza Especial Mexicana rescataron en la colonia Los Portales en Ciudad Juárez a cuatro personas víctimas de privación de la libertad. Una persona originaria de Brasil; y dos menores y un adulto de origen ecuatoriano. |
https://laopcion.com.mx/juarez/rescatan-a-4-migrantes-secuestrados-en-ciudad-juarez-20230804-434943.html |
| 08/11/2023 |
kidnapping |
126 |
One hundred twenty-six migrants from Ecuador were kidnapped in Sonoyta, Sonora in August 2023, five kilometers from the U.S. border. |
https://elpais.com/mexico/2023-08-11/hallados-126-migrantes-ecuatorianos-en-una-casa-de-seguridad-de-sonora.html |
|
extortion |
1 |
Anabel* fled death threats in Ecuador. She is on her 2nd attempt to seek protection in the US. On this journey, Mexican police demanded 1,000 pesos to let her continue ($58 USD). She has been trying to get a CBP One appointment for over a month. |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
|
extortion |
1 |
Emanuel* is fleeing Ecuador. In Mexico, the police and immigration agents extorted him 3 times each, taking $2,000 pesos ($117 USD). He described Mexican agents feeling under his clothes and inside his pants, searching for more money: “they nearly strip you naked.” |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
|
kidnapping |
9 |
Nine migrants from Ecuador and Guatemala, including women and children, were taken by force from a hotel in Ciudad Juárez and kidnapped in August 2023. |
https://www.uniradiosonora.com/sociedad/levantan-9-migrantes-hotel-ciudad-juarez-n690802 |
|
kidnapping |
46 |
El 26 de julio fueron rescatados 46 migrantes que estaban secuestrados en una casa de seguridad en Sonoyta, Sonora. 19 migrantes provenientes de Mauritania, tres de Senegal, y 24 de la India, estuvieron secuestrados por cuatro días en un domicilio ubicado en el Boulevard Benemérito de las Américas.
|
https://www.milenio.com/estados/inm-rescatan-22-migrantes-africanos-secuestrados-sonora |
|
robbery, threats |
1 |
Osvaldo*, from Colombia, described an assault near Monterrey. In the middle of the night, an armed group stopped the bus he was traveling on and ordered all the non-Mexicans off the bus. The group forced them to turn over all their money, threatening to kidnap or kill them if they did not pay. |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
| 09/06/2023 |
kidnapping, extortion |
1 |
“Juan” salió de Honduras en busca de una vida mejor para su familia, pero al llegar a Ciudad Juárez fue secuestrado, por lo que hace más de un mes su familia pide dinero en las calles de su país para reunir los más de 10 mil dólares que les están exigiendo a cambio de su liberación. “Estamos desesperados, tenemos el temor de que le hagan algo, ahí lo tienen”, dijo ayer el padre del centroamericano. |
https://diario.mx/juarez/aumentan-secuestros-de-migrantes-20230906-2095743.html |
| 09/06/2023 |
kidnapping, threats, extortion |
6 |
A principios de agosto personal de la Agencia Estatal de Investigación de la Unidad Modelo de Atención al Delito de Secuestro, perteneciente a la Fiscalía de Operaciones Estratégicas, logró el rescate de seis personas de origen colombiano, entre ellas dos menores de edad, quienes tenían 12 días secuestradas en la calle Centeno de la colonia Colinas de Juárez en Ciudad Juárez. Los secuestradores los amenazaban con armas de fuego mientras exigían a sus familiares 17 mil dólares por la liberación de cada una de las víctimas. |
https://diario.mx/juarez/aumentan-secuestros-de-migrantes-20230906-2095743.html |
| 09/06/2023 |
kidnapping |
21 |
El 13 de agosto, policías municipales lograron el rescate de 21 personas en movilidad de México, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador y Nicaragua, quienes permanecían privados de la libertad en una vivienda de la colonia Parajes del Sol en Ciudad Juárez. |
https://diario.mx/juarez/aumentan-secuestros-de-migrantes-20230906-2095743.html |
| 09/06/2023 |
kidnapping, extortion |
7 |
El 23 de agosto, siete migrantes de Guatemala y Ecuador, entre ellos una niña de 9 años de edad, fueron secuestrados cuando permanecían en el hotel Sanmiguel, ubicado en la avenida Tecnológico en Ciudad Juárez, por siete hombres armados y encapuchados, quienes les exigían a sus familiares hasta 15 mil dólares de rescate por cada uno de ellos; sin embargo, fueron liberados por las autoridades estatales. |
https://diario.mx/juarez/aumentan-secuestros-de-migrantes-20230906-2095743.html |
| 09/08/2023 |
kidnapping |
112 |
El fiscal de Chihuahua puntualizó que en este periodo se han rescatado a 112 migrantes de secuestro. |
https://www.nmas.com.mx/nacional/fiscalia-de-chihuahua-alerta-por-aumento-de-secuestros-a-migrantes/ |
|
robbery |
2 |
Thalia* and her partner, Ronal*, left Ecuador to escape government extortion. On the bus ride in Mexico, a police officer with her face covered boarded the bus and said, “you already know why I’m here; give me everything you have” and they had to turn over all their money. They eventually arrived in Monterrey and Ronal got a CBPOne appointment in Nogales, over 900 miles away. |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
|
extortion, threats |
1 |
Jesus* fled Cuba 1 year ago, after having participated in the July 11, 2021 protests against the government. He experienced abuses on his journey. In Mexico while aboard a bus, the driver made a call and shortly after a criminal group removed the foreign nationals from the bus at gunpoint and extorted them. |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
|
robbery |
1 |
Ricardo*, from Venezuela, suffered most on his journey through Mexico. At a train station in Sinaloa, a criminal group robbed him at gunpoint, taking his $2,000 pesos ($114 USD), his identification, and his cellphone. He already had a CBP One account and had been trying to get an appointment. He worked in Nogales until he could afford another phone, but CBP One won’t let him enter as a new update to the app which is supposed to prevent fraud, also blocks users with more than one profile from requesting an appointment. |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
|
kidnapping |
2 |
El pasado sábado una familia cubana que estaba secuestrada en México fue liberada tras las presión mediática hecha por sus familiares en Estados Unidos. |
https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2023-09-20-u1-e199894-s27061-crece-temor-cubanos-varados-tapachula-somos-victimas |
|
murder |
9 |
Cuatro personas sin vida, al parecer migrantes, fueron localizados a la altura del kilómetro 13 de la carretera de cuota Tecate-Tijuana. Los cadáveres tenían disparos de arma de fuego en el cráneo y todos estaban atados de las manos por la espalda. Hace un mes en la misma zona localizaron a otros cinco migrantes sin vida. |
https://www.milenio.com/politica/comunidad/hallan-cadaveres-de-cuatro-migrantes-en-tijuana |
|
kidnapping |
23 |
Elementos de la Fiscalía General del Estado realizaron esta mañana un cateo a un domicilio en la Colonia Ampliación Aeropuerto en Ciudad Juárez, en la que lograron rescatar a 23 migrantes que estaban privados de su libertad. |
https://laopcion.com.mx/juarez/catean-domicilio-y-rescatan-a-23-migrantes-secuestrados-detienen-a-3-plagiarios-20230922-440769.html |
|
murder, aggravated assault |
2 |
A migrant man was killed by members of an organized criminal group in July 2023, five kilometers from the Otay port of entry in Tijuana, Baja California. The man and a friend were trying to cross into the U.S. through an opening in the border wall when they were attacked by four men who demanded to know who they paid to cross the border. Upon replying they paid no one, the two migrant men were taken to the side of a mountain, ordered to kneel, and one of them was shot dead. The other migrant escaped and sought help along the border wall from the California state authority, Cal Fire. |
https://bajanews.mx/noticias/17066/Buscan-pistas-para-resolver-secuestro-y-tiroteo-a-migrantes |
|
kidnapping, rape, extortion, human trafficking |
10 |
A Venezuelan woman was raped in Reynosa in late May. Carolina's captors arrived at dawn to pull her out of the stash house. One of the men shoved her onto a broken-down bus parked outside and raped her. "It's the saddest, most horrible thing that can happen to a person," Carolina said. She said she was freed after family members paid $3,100 in ransom.
Journalists interviewed eight sexual assault survivors and more than a dozen local aid workers. An Ecuadorian woman said that while in captivity in Reynosa, her kidnappers repeatedly allowed a drug dealer to rape her in exchange for his deliveries of a white powder which she suspected was cocaine. One night, she escaped through the window. "I still have nightmares," she said.
A Venezuelan migrant said he was kidnapped in May in Reynosa by a cartel while traveling to the border for his confirmed CBP One appointment. He could not raise the $800 ransom, so he was forced to work for two months to pay off the remaining $200, he said. Two other migrants who said they were held at the house during the same time period confirmed the man was forced to work against his will, and that they heard female migrants being raped. |
https://www.reuters.com/world/migrants-are-being-raped-mexico-border-they-await-entry-us-2023-09-29/ |
| 10/03/2023 |
kidnapping, extortion |
23 |
Twenty-three migrants of various nationalities, including children, were kidnapped in Ciudad Juárez in October 2023. They were held for one week by a criminal group led by a former Mexican municipal police officer. The captor demanded a ransom of between two and three thousand dollars per individual kidnapped. |
https://www.eldiariodechihuahua.mx/estado/de-guerrero-a-tijuana-y-de-ahi-a-juarez-secuestradores-de-23-migrantes-20231003-2105224.html |
| 10/08/2023 |
kidnapping, sexual assault, threats, extortion |
10 |
Un grupo de 10 ciudadanos venezolanos, originarios del estado Apure, fueron secuestrados por una mafia de sicarios en la ruta entre Monterrey y El Paso, México. Los secuestradores exigen un rescate de 7.000 dólares para liberar a sus víctimas; advirtiendo que, de no recibirse el pago, procederán con asesinarlos. Una de las mujeres fue abusada sexualmente. |
https://acn.com.ve/secuestrados-10-venezolanos-mexico/ |
| 10/11/2023 |
murder, aggravated assault |
6 |
Dos migrantes fueron asesinados por miembros del Ejército Mexicano en el estado de Chihuahua, cerca de Ciudad Juárez. Las dos personas fallecidas son de origen guatemalteco y fueron asesinados a balazos. Se llamaban Elvis Enrique Barrientos de la Rosa y Margarito Canto Juárez. Tenían 27 y 45 años. Ellos se encontraban con 4 migrantes más que resultaron heridos. El fiscal Salas ha anunciado que sus agentes están tomando declaración a los migrantes heridos, que se recuperan en hospitales de la ciudad fronteriza. Sus nombres son Carlos Humberto Rodríguez López, de 19 años, Rigoberto González Chávez, de 28, y Selvín Eduardo García Paredes, de 19, originarios de Guatemala. El cuarto es Raúl Hernández Ramírez, tiene 18 años y es originario de Honduras. |
https://elpais.com/mexico/2023-10-11/el-asesinato-a-balazos-de-dos-migrantes-en-chihuahua-pone-de-nuevo-en-el-punto-de-mira-al-ejercito.html?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, torture, extortion |
1 |
A Venezuelan young adult, who was waiting to seek asylum in the US, was kidnapped when entering Reynosa by bus in September 2023. On the fourth day, the cartel cut off his finger and sent the images to his relatives demanding immediate ransom for his abduction. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
murder, kidnapping |
4 |
Two Venezuelan young women and a Venezuelan young man survived a kidnapping by the cartel in Reynosa in September 2023. A fourth Venezuelan young man who was travelling with them was killed by the cartel during the kidnapping. They were waiting to obtain a CBP One appointment. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, torture, beatings, threats |
7 |
Three Venezuelan men had been trying to obtain CBP One appointments when they were kidnapped in Reynosa in September 2023. The three men were held for five and six days, and their cousin was held for nine days. One of them described being tortured and beaten on his head and body. Another described being forced to stand the entire day in the middle of the room and tortured if he didn’t. They witnessed another man threatened with cutting off his ear or finger. They witnessed another Venezuelan man who was told his release was conditioned on his Venezuelan female friend having sex with all the cartel members, which she refused. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
aggravated assault |
1 |
In September 2023, in Reynosa, while waiting to seek asylum in the U.S., a Venezuelan man was shot in the head after being pulled off a bus that had been taken by the cartel to kidnap passengers. He lost an eye. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, beatings, robbery, extortion, assault, threats |
2 |
Two young male asylum seekers from Latin America were kidnapped by a Mexican cartel in Reynosa in August 2023 as they arrived at the border city to seek asylum in the U.S. Their captors beat them, stripped them of all their clothing, and robbed them of their phones and money. They were held captive for almost a week while the cartel extorted their families. Shortly after their kidnapping, the young men were assaulted and robbed again in Reynosa, this time by Mexican officials who threatened to kill them and mutilate their bodies. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, torture, threats |
6 |
After trying for a month to obtain a CBP One appointment, a Venezuelan man and four other migrants were kidnapped in Reynosa upon arriving by cargo train and held captive in a room with other asylum seekers, mostly from Venezuela. “They torture you and beat you like an animal.”
The cartel tortured him with severe beatings and forced him and others to witness torture when they cut off the finger of another man whose family had not been able to pay the ransom. He was threatened by the cartel that if they saw him again, they would kill him. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping |
4 |
A migrant who had been kidnapped in Reynosa was released at the bus terminal. There he saw the cartel kidnap a pregnant mother, father, and young child who also appeared to be migrants. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, robbery, beatings, torture |
4 |
A Venezuelan man traveling alone while attempting to obtain a CBP One appointment was kidnapped in September 2023 in Reynosa. Five armed men boarded his bus and asked him and another man if they had CBP One appointments and forced them off the bus. He was kidnapped for 10 days, deprived of food, and photographed. He was held together with adults and many children of other nationalities, including Hondurans and Guatemalans. He was beaten with a baseball bat for days and forced to witness the cartel cut off the finger of another man. The children were forced to witness these horrific harms and amputations with loss of blood. The cartel kept his phone after releasing him, forcing him to start over in requesting a CBP One appointment. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, beatings, threats, torture |
3 |
A Venezuelan couple trying to obtain a CBP One appointment was kidnapped from a bus in Reynosa in September 2023 by the cartel. They were held for five days. The male partner was beaten with a bat during the five days, forced to smoke marijuana and snort cocaine, and threatened that he would be shot or have his finger cut off. The couple was also forced to witness the torture and beatings of others. They were given only bread and water. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
attempted kidnapping |
1 |
A group of young Venezuelan migrants waited in front of the Reynosa port of entry, struggling to obtain a CBP One appointment, but they were blocked by the Mexican migration authority from accessing the port. One of the young Venezuelan adults crossed the main thoroughfare to buy something to drink. He was quickly approached by a member of the cartel who asked him for the password that would allow him to escape a kidnapping. His companions shouted to him to run, and he escaped by sprinting back across the main avenue to the port of entry. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, robbery, threats, extortion |
4 |
A group of four Venezuelans who had recently arrived in Matamoros were led to the river encampment told they could find help and somewhere to stay. Upon arrival, they were ordered to enter a tent by individuals identifying themselves as members of a cartel and held hostage for several days until family members paid ransoms. One Venezuelan man was only able to pay $100 USD. The cartel kept his passport and national identity card and told him he would be forced to work to repay them. He is still receiving threatening communications from them and fears for his life in Matamoros. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
assault, robbery. threats |
2 |
A Venezuelan LGBTQ+ couple were in their tent in the Matamoros river camp in July 2023 when they overheard an assault against an Ecuadorian family in another tent nearby. Armed men struck the Ecuadorian man in the head and demanded the family to hand over their phones and money, or they would kill them. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
assault, robbery |
1 |
A Venezuelan woman and her husband witnessed the assault and robbery of an older Chinese man by members of a cartel in the Matamoros camp in August 2023. The Chinese man was beaten and robbed of his phone, money and belongings. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, assault, attempted kidnapping |
3 |
Three Venezuelan men were kidnapped and beaten by the cartel in Reynosa in September 2023. After their release, they moved to a migrant shelter in Matamoros where they continued to be at risk of kidnapping. They experienced two attempted kidnappings near this shelter: the first, while looking for work one day, and the second, while outside a nearby supermarket. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
attempted kidnapping |
2 |
A gay Venezuelan couple waiting to secure a CBP One appointment was nearly abducted while walking at night to buy food in August 2023 in Matamoros. A truck began following them and two men jumped out. Terrified, the couple ran and managed to hide. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
attempted kidnapping |
1 |
A young Venezuelan adult waiting for his CBP One appointment in Matamoros was followed by a truck that appeared to be occupied by cartel members. He ran and luckily escaped. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping |
1 |
At the Matamoros bus terminal in September 2023, several Venezuelan men who had just arrived observed a person they believed to be a migrant or asylum seeker being kidnapped from the bus terminal by men they believed to be cartel members, and then put into a truck. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, sexual assault, assault, extortion |
2 |
A Venezuelan seven-year-old child, who identifies as LGBTQ and was traveling with his mother, was kidnapped by the cartel. They were waiting in Reynosa to seek asylum in the U.S. and were held captive for three weeks in September 2023. The cartel drugged the child and sexually assaulted him. The captors demanded a ransom to release them. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, attempted sexual assault, assault |
3 |
A Honduran woman, her husband, and young daughter who were waiting to seek asylum in the U.S. were kidnapped in Reynosa in September 2023 by members of a cartel who also attempted to sexually assault the mother. As she fought and screamed, her husband attempted to defend her and was tied with cables, beaten, and seriously injured. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, sexual assault |
3 |
Two 19-year-old and one 20-year-old Honduran male asylum seekers were kidnapped by the cartel in Reynosa in September 2023. They were sexually assaulted. Since being released, they are suffering from severe acute stress and trauma on account of the sexual violence they survived. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, sexual assault |
3 |
In September 2023, a Latin American mother and her minor children were waiting to seek asylum in the U.S.They were kidnapped and sexually assaulted by the cartel in Reynosa. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
extortion, threats |
1 |
A young trans woman waiting in Ciudad Juárez to seek asylum in the U.S. was targeted and forced by the cartel to pay them $1,500.00 Mexican pesos a week under threats of sexual exploitation. She is afraid she will be killed if she misses a payment. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
sexual assault, beatings, assault |
5 |
A Venezuelan man and his brother had been struggling to obtain a CBP One appointment. While transiting on the roof of a cargo train with three others toward northern Mexico, the train unexpectedly stopped in the middle of the night for an hour. A Mexican police officer climbed aboard the top of their train car, saw them, and left. Minutes later, they were ambushed and attacked on the train roof by many members of a cartel. The woman in their group was stabbed with a knife, one of the men was anally sexually assaulted, and another was hit in the face with a bat. They managed to escape, and a Mexican police car arrived, but it did not pursue the perpetrators. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, threats, extortion |
3 |
In Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, a Venezuelan couple and their one-year-old child were kidnapped while waiting to seek asylum in the U.S. A cartel kidnapped them when their bus from Monterrey was stopped in transit in late September 2023. Their family members in Monterrey reported that they had been kidnapped for six days and were forced to call family expressing that their finger, ear, or eye would be cut off if ransom was not paid quickly. They had not been released. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, extortion |
1 |
A Venezuelan woman, traveling alone, had been waiting to obtain a CBP One appointment and was kidnapped for ransom in Reynosa in June 2023. Upon her release, she returned to Mexico City where she waited for three months due to the trauma of her kidnapping. She still – after months of waiting - had not received a CBP One appointment despite trying. She left Mexico City and was kidnapped again in Monterrey while she was still trying to get an appointment. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
robbery, assault |
2 |
A Haitian family, living in fear in Mexico City while trying to get a CBP One appointment, reported that in June 2023, a group of Haitians were attacked and robbed outside the building where they were staying. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
robbery, assault |
1 |
A Venezuelan asylum seeker, trying to obtain a CBP One appointment, was attacked in Sinaloa, Mexico. He was attacked and robbed of his cellphone by a cartel at a train station. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
assault, attempted kidnapping, robbery |
2 |
An Indigenous Shuar family, fleeing Ecuador, was assaulted, experienced an attempted kidnapping, and was robbed by a cartel in their transit to the northern Mexico border while waiting to seek asylum in the U.S. They were forced to walk for days along the highway. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
enforced disappearance |
2 |
In late August or early September 2023, a Venezuelan family, trying to secure a CBP One appointment was walking in Reynosa when they were stopped by the Mexican police and subsequently turned over to a cartel. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
threats, extortion |
2 |
A group of Venezuelan young adults was stopped by the police in Reynosa while waiting to secure a CBP One appointment. They were given an ultimatum: pay me now or I’ll hand you over to the cartel. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, extortion |
22 |
In September 2023 a group of 22 asylum seekers who had CBP One appointments and was travelling to the Matamoros port of entry was kidnapped by the cartel in Reynosa. Their buses were diverted there by their bus drivers in collusion with the cartel. One Venezuelan woman, husband, and four minor children described being held captive for five days during which they missed their CBP One appointments until their relatives were forced to pay for their freedom. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, extortion |
100 |
A Venezuelan trans woman, fleeing persecution and violence, was en route to her CBP One appointment when she was kidnapped at the Reynosa bus terminal in August 2023. Two men with two-way radios boarded the bus and questioned her and others if they were foreigners and what they were doing. She replied she had a CBP One appointment and showed her appointment confirmation. Several other passengers on the bus also had CBP One appointments. The men removed them from the bus and held them for ransom with 100 other migrants. She missed her CBP One appointment during this time. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, assault, beatings |
15 |
In September 2023, a Venezuelan family traveling by bus from Reynosa to Matamoros for their CBP One appointment witnessed another bus that had also departed from the terminal with a group of 15 Cuban asylum seekers, one of whom they had befriended, being taken. Later, in Matamoros, the family saw five of the Cuban asylum seekers who had been kidnapped from that bus, and they witnessed their bloodied wrists from having been forcibly handcuffed with cables. The Cubans described being brutally beaten on their backs while kidnapped. One of the Cuban men missed his CBP One appointment on account of the kidnapping. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, extortion |
1 |
A Venezuelan man who survived a kidnapping in Reynosa in September 2023 explained how Mexican migration and law enforcement officers extort migrants with CBP One appointments for greater amounts than others during the numerous checkpoints along transit routes toward the U.S. ports of entry at the border. “If you have a [CBP One] appointment, it’s worse. They’ll demand more money. You can’t show or say that you have an appointment. Instead, people show their CBP registration confirmation.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
sexual assault |
2 |
A Latin American lesbian couple was sexually assaulted in Reynosa in September 2023 while waiting to secure CBP One appointments to approach the U.S. port of entry to seek asylum. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
assault |
2 |
In September 2023, a Venezuelan gay man and his partner had been waiting in Matamoros for nearly five months trying to secure a CBP One appointment. They were witness to a violent assault on a family by the cartel and to other situations of danger, which motivated them to seek shelter elsewhere. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
extortion, enforced disappearance |
3 |
A Venezuelan family arrived in Matamoros without a cent left, having been extorted by Mexican authorities at numerous checkpoints on their journey toward the border, including at the last checkpoint prior to entering Matamoros. At this last checkpoint a Mexican female police officer demanded $600 USD from them and threatened to detain them for ransom – a short-term enforced disappearance – if they did not pay. They lived in constant fear in the Matamoros encampment and could no longer wait for a CBP One appointment. Eventually, they crossed the river, explaining the mother was epileptic, and they had no food to feed their child. |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
kidnapping, torture |
1 |
A Venezuelan asylum seeker who survived a kidnapping and torture in Reynosa and had been trying for one month to secure a CBP One appointment, shared with Human Rights First in September 2023:
“Venezuela is also a country where police officers kidnap and extort people. How can we stay here in Mexico when we feel so insecure? The authorities are the first ones to rob us. If this were a safe country, we’d stay. Who wants to live with this insecurity? No one.” |
https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/inhumane-and-counterproductive-asylum-ban-inflicts-mounting-harm/ |
| 10/12/2023 |
extortion, robbery |
4 |
Chun* fled China with her husband and their 2 young boys. In Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexican Immigration officials stopped them and told her husband he could not continue and had to wait there. Mexican Immigration verbally abused them, extorted and robbed them, and separated Chun and her children from their father. She called 911 to ask for help and the police told her to travel to Nogales to be able to enter the US. |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
| 10/12/2023 |
threats, extortion |
1 |
Emanuel* is fleeing violence in Ecuador. Mexican police threatened and extorted him on the journey and told him to stay quiet because he is a foreigner and he would only face worse if he reported the abuse. |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
|
extortion |
3 |
Javier*, Gerardo*, and Jaime* fled Venezuela after facing persecution as people opposed to the government. In Mexico, the National Guard stopped them at a checkpoint in Sonora. Even though they had CBP One appointments, the National Guard demanded $2,000 ($110 USD) pesos per person to allow them to continue. |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
| 11/09/2023 |
kidnapping |
11 |
Elementos de la Policía del Estado rescataron a 11 migrantes de origen guatemalteco que se encontraban privados de su libertad, en una vivienda ubicada en la colonia Azteca en Ciudad Juárez. |
https://laopcion.com.mx/local/rescatan-a-11-migrantes-privados-de-la-libertad-en-juarez-20231109-446473.html |
|
kidnapping, extortion |
22 |
22 Venezolanos que estaban a la espera de un permiso para entrar a los Estados Unidos fueron secuestrados mientras viajaban hacia Torreón, en el estado de Coahuila. Entre ellos había 6 menores de edad. Los secuestradores exigen a sus familias tres mil quinientos dólares por la liberación de cada uno. |
https://elporvenir.mx/internacional/denuncian-secuestro-de-22-migrantes-venezolanos-en-mexico/654726 |
|
robbery |
2 |
Jovana* and her family fled Venezuela and while in Mexico City, got a CBP One appointment in Nogales for mid-October. Mexican Immigration prevented them from boarding their flight in Mexico City and detained them, took their cellphones and returned them to Southern Mexico. They missed their CBP One appointment and had to transit through Mexico again to continue trying to seek entry and start the asylum process. |
Communication from Kino Border Initiative |
|
aggravated assault, extortion |
1 |
Guardias de Ferromex en Tabalaopa, Chihuahua, perseguían a un ladrón que se refugió entre un grupo de migrantes. Los guardias dispararon contra el grupo e hirieron a un migrante. El grupo denunció que han sido víctimas de extorsiones por parte de autoridades migratorias. |
http://www.elfronterizo.com.mx/noticia/294722/guardias-de-ferromex-balean-a-migrante |
|
kidnapping |
165 |
Elementos de la Guardia Nacional lograron rescatar este fin de semana a 165 migrantes que estaban privados de su libertad, en diferentes municipios de la frontera tamaulipeca. |
https://expreso.press/2023/11/27/rescatan-a-165-migrantes-secuestrados-en-tamaulipas/ |
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1.259 |
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