Mexican women help migrants on dangerous journey to the United States

Few know more about the perilous migrant journey through Mexico in recent months than a group of women in the eastern state of Veracruz, known as Las Patronas.

Over the past 30 years, although policies toward Central American migrants have tightened on both sides of the Rio Grande, they have always maintained a humanitarian gesture toward migrants passing through their villages.

Every day, Las Patronas packs rice, beans, tortillas, bread, canned tuna and bottled water.

As the freight train is called The most beautiful girlmeaning the Beast, coming, they rushed to the side of the tracks and held out food for the migrants walking on the roofs to snatch as they ran by.

“Gracias! God bless you!” the migrants shouted over the deafening noise of the train as it rattled north, a fleeting moment of kindness in one of the world’s most dangerous migrant journeys.

Many people will struggle to move further north.

This year, Mexico has stopped about three times as many migrants from crossing into its territory from Central America as it did a year ago. While the Mexican government’s 280,000-a-month bans have won approval in Washington, they have made life miserable for those on the road.

“The dream that many people call the American Dream has turned into a nightmare,” Norma Romero, founder of Las Patronas, reflected.

Mexico and the United States are at a pivotal moment in their relationship.

Mexico just elected its first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who will take office in October. Meanwhile, the United States is campaigning for its first female president, Kamala Harris, or a second Trump presidency on the horizon.

Neither of these scenarios gives Norma much reason to be optimistic.

“I never put my faith in politics. Instead, I believe in ordinary people bringing about change and thinking differently,” she said, while other volunteers chopped vegetables to season rice.

She also doesn’t think having a woman in charge will make any difference in addressing the rampant abuse of migrants in Mexico.

“Sadly, politics haven’t improved in, well, as long as I can remember. There’s never really been any change that has benefited migrants.”

I first met Norma a decade ago when she showed the BBC footage of freight trains packed with migrants fleeing violence and hardship in their home countries in search of a better life in the United States.

Successive Mexican governments have tended not to stop people from heading north if they are just passing through. In the United States, undocumented immigration has not been the divisive election issue it is today.

Today, that attitude has changed dramatically. Especially in US border states, it is a top issue heading into the November vote.

In June, President Joe Biden issued an executive order giving the U.S. Border Patrol the authority to deport people who illegally crossed into the United States without processing their asylum claims. In the first four weeks of the new policy, there was a 40% reduction in detentions at the U.S. southern border.

Norma said Las Patronas had seen significantly emptier trains in recent weeks – sometimes without any migrants on board. She suggested migrants were taking other routes, by bus or on foot.

But they remain woefully under-informed about US policy developments or the extent of the obstacles they face along the way, she said:

“Migrants don’t have the basic knowledge that is necessary to move through Mexico,” she lamented. “We see what is happening to them and try to think about their well-being as human beings.”

Las Patronas also runs a shelter where weary migrants can get a hot meal, a bed, showers, laundry and medical care.

Among those staying for a few days to rest and regain strength was Guadalupe, a Salvadoran migrant traveling with her 17-year-old daughter Nicole. She said they would not continue. The most beautiful girl Once again, twice dragged off the cargo ship by immigration officers.

She recalls that the experience was devastating.

“They beat a lot of people who were with us and shocked others. They almost shocked me too. It was the worst experience we ever had in Mexico.”

With the threat of kidnapping, sexual abuse and extortion from domestic drug cartels, crossing into Mexico is one of the most dangerous legs of a journey that for some begins in the Andes or the Caribbean.

However, Guadalupe said they are often extorted by immigration and security officials, who are responsible for enforcing the law in Mexico.

“Once they got us off the boat, several immigration officers asked us for bribes. If we had enough money, we could get through. This time, we didn’t have any, and they sent us back to the border with Guatemala. That was the hardest part.”

Mexican law enforcement has certainly curbed the number of migrants reaching the United States.

“There is no migration crisis right now,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said recently as he urged the United States to increase development aid to Central America to prevent people from leaving in the first place.

Instead of outright deportations – Mexico sent back only about 8,500 people in the first three months of this year – Mexican authorities have resorted to a form of ‘internal displacement’. Thousands of detained migrants have been dropped off in towns on the Guatemalan border, some 2,000 kilometres from the US border.

This strategy depletes the money and energy migrants need to continue. Salvadoran migrant Guadalupe likens the tactic to a giant game of snakes and ladders:

“It’s very similar. Like the board game, you have to avoid stepping on the snake or you’ll be sent back to square one. It’s the same here. If we don’t hide or outrun the immigration officers, our journey will end and we’ll be sent back to square one.”

The BBC has repeatedly requested interviews with the Mexican government about the issue of undocumented immigration, but no one has agreed.

As another train approached, Guadalupe helped Norma Romero and the other women carry food down the tracks.

Regardless of who wins the U.S. election, or what their relationship with President-elect Sheinbaum is, Norma says Las Patronas will not turn off the stove as long as migrants continue to come through.

Listen to ‘Las Patronas’ on BBC World Service documentary.