Soaring numbers of migrants heading to the U.S. border through Mexico in recent weeks, most of them from Central and South America, prompted rail company Ferromex to temporarily suspend service of around 60 freight train routes.
Migrants hitch rides on the trains, often wedged perilously between carriages, or sitting on top of them. The sheer numbers now looking to head north, Ferromex said, had become a safety hazard, resulting in the decision to suspend some services.
Interviewed by the NTR media outlet this week, Enrique González Araiza, coordinator of FM4, a Guadalajara NGO that supports migrants passing through the city, said freight trains are the main transportation resource for migrants, and suspending them will not protect the travelers but rather make them even more vulnerable. Instead, he said, it will put many at the mercy of criminals dedicated to human trafficking, in addition to making their journey to the United States far more expensive.
Various news agencies have reported a large influx of migrants arriving in Ciudad Juarez in recent weeks, while U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the number of apprehensions of migrants entering Texas illegally has skyrocketed, after initially falling away following the end of the Title 42 emergency health order in May.