Mexican government officials and bulldozer crews cooperated on Wednesday, December 27 to clear out and destroy a migrant camp along the US-Mexico border. The camp, sitting astride the Rio Grande near the town of Matamoros, Mexico, developed in late 2022 as migrants poured into the area and attempted to cross into the Brownsville, Texas, area, which borders Matamoros.
While the camp once held hundreds, and at some points as many as 1,500 migrants, it was mostly vacated when the Mexican bulldozers cleared it, as all the migrants who had been living in the temporary structures erected at the camp had tried crossing into the United States.
Tweeting about the camp’s destruction, AP journalist Valerie Gonzalez said, “Over last few days as US and Mexico have been in talks over immigration, an encampment in Matamoros, MX was cleared out — forcibly, some said — with machetes and bulldozers. One migrant father said they had little notice and many fled out of fear. This was the bulldozer used.”
In another tweet, Gonzalez said, “This was the bulldozer in action as filmed by a migrant. Workers, under MX immigration orders, tore down tents that INM said were empty. Migrants said some were forcibly removed before their tents were destroyed. One dad cried telling me the fear his children felt that night.”
The destruction of the camp came as the Mexican government met with a US delegation in Mexico City, with the aim being for the US to work with the National Police to deal with the massive migrant wave crashing across the US-Mexico border.
After the trip, the Biden Administration described the meeting in a statement in which it said, “The two countries reaffirmed their existing commitments on fostering an orderly, humane, and regular migration. This includes reinforcing our partnership to address the root causes of migration, such as poverty, inequality, and violence, and for the two countries’ initiative for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Ongoing cooperation also includes enhanced efforts to disrupt human smuggling, trafficking, and criminal networks, and continuing the work to promote legal instead of irregular migration pathways. Also, both delegations agreed on the importance of maintaining and facilitating the vital bilateral trade at our shared border.”
Continuing, the statement called for “regular, orderly, and secure migration,” saying, “President López Obrador highlighted the commitment of President Biden to pursue regular, orderly, and secure migration. He stressed the need to continue the diplomatic and political engagement with all countries in the region, as well as investing in ambitious development programs throughout the entire hemisphere of the Americas. Both delegations underlined the efforts that the Biden administration is pursuing through development assistance and humanitarian aid, as well as advancing new private investments in the region.”
It also indicated that some further residency or citizenship benefits could be granted to the DACA migrants and other long-term illegal immigrant residents of the United States, saying, “The delegations also discussed the benefit of regularizing the situation of long-term undocumented Hispanic migrants and DACA recipients, who are a vital part of the U.S. economy and society.”
Watch the bulldozers in Matamoros here:
Here’s another video of the bulldozer in action:
Featured image credit: Valerie Gonzalez on X
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