A caravan of more than 40 compact cars carrying hundreds of immigrants was detained by Mexican authorities on Saturday night in Tamaulipas, a state bordering Texas, in what is feared is a possible case of human trafficking, according to the Army. Mexican.
A total of
47 vehicles
were intercepted around 8:00 pm on Saturday by personnel from the Army and the National Institute of Migration (INM) in a gap in Camargo, a municipality on the Mexican border with the United States, at the height from Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
The cars transported
152 migrants, including men, women and children, of different nationalities
"who did not have documents proving their legal stay in the country," according to the authorities in a statement.
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Hundreds of people, including families with children, were transported in the compact cars. Mexico's National Defense Secretariat
It is unknown if the group rented the vehicles or they were moved by coyotes.
"[The immigrants] were placed at the disposal of the corresponding civil authorities in the city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, for their attention,
as they were probable victims of human traffickers,
" said a statement.
The authorities did not give details about the origin of the migrant families or the route the caravan was following.
Although illegal border crossings between Mexico and the US were reduced in September, the region has seen
a historic migratory flow
this year
.
About 147,000 undocumented immigrants were detected in the United States from January to August, triple that of 2020, and a record 212,000 were detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in July alone.
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A total of 47 vehicles were intercepted in Tamaulipas. Secretariat of National Defense Mexico
Migrant families face the journey through Mexico in caravans of thousands of people, such as the one that was intercepted this Friday in Tapachula, in the south of the country, but also by means of vehicles, in many cases
in overcrowded conditions and violence
.
Migrants are often at the mercy of coyotes and criminal gangs.
The pro-immigrant group Human Rights First has evidence of at least 6,356 migrants who have been kidnapped, abused or attacked since January of this year.
Just two weeks ago, Mexican authorities intercepted
652 Central American immigrants, 355 of them minors, while they were traveling crowded together in three refrigerated trailers
on a highway also in Tamaulipas.
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