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February 14, 2019

Mexico: Migrant Asylum Seekers Imprisoned in Abandoned Factory
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The showdown over Trump's border wall came as riot police in northern
Mexico blocked hundreds of desperate Central American migrants Wednesday
as they tried to escape an abandoned factory complex where they've been
imprisoned while waiting for the U.S. to process their asylum claims.
More than 1,700 migrants have been held in the maquiladora in the
Mexican border town of Piedras Negras since February 5, after they
arrived in a caravan of people seeking asylum in the U.S. The vast
majority have remained prisoners at the site, after the Trump
administration adopted a "Remain in Mexico" policy for asylum
seekers-processing just 15 asylum applications per day at the nearby
Eagle Pass border crossing. This is one of the migrants speaking with
the Texas-based immigrant rights group RAICES.

Central American migrant: "We are not allowed to go outside. They have
locked us up as prisoners. We need organizations to support us with hats
and gloves, or with bedding and scarves. That's what we need, because
the cold is tremendous. And the real truth is that there are children
here. There are sick people. There are seniors. And the truth is, we're
in an abandoned factory, and now we're using it as a shelter."



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