Municipal police officers and officials from the National Migration Institute (INM) rescued 77 migrants, most of them Guatemalans, who had been abandoned by traffickers at a hotel in the Las Conchas neighborhood of Guadalajara.
Lacking money and food, the migrants called the emergency number from the Hotel Julia, located at the intersection of calles Cinco de Febrero and Las Conchas, a few blocks from the Agua Azul Park and the old bus station.
Authorities found 38 men, 20 women and 19 minors at the hotel. They explained they had been promised to be taken to Sinaloa. When their “recruiters” failed to return to the hotel after two days, they said there were no other options other than to turn themselves in.
The INM took the migrants to their shelter in Guadalajara while investigations continued, and a resolution as to their immediate future was determined.
According to reports, the migrants were in good health, apart from two families who had flu symptoms.
As well as Guatemalans, the migrants were also from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras.
Although he says Jalisco is not part of the most commonly used route migrants take to reach the U.S. border, up to 100 undocumented migrants are detected in Guadalajara each week, according to Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro. Calling the trend “a big problem that is going to grow,” he said migration has exacerbated the problem of homelessness in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.