It is night in Tapachula and a stampede of migrants pushes into one of the entrances to the offices of the National Institute of Migration installed in the Ecological Park, in the suburbs of the city. Two agents of the National Guard who guard the entrance hold with everything they give the metal fence they have placed to try to control the flow of migrants to the interior. Behind the fence, about two thousand migrants huddle waiting for their turn. Migrants enter uncontrollably and agents try to stop them shouting. "Now! Already! Now!" one of them shouts. In the face of chaos, a group of Venezuelans, also migrants, take pity on the agents and help push the fences and cut off the flow.
The policemen recompose themselves and one of them shouts at the immigration agents who try to control the group behind the fence: "They don't fit here anymore! They don't fit anymore!" he says exasperated.
For two weeks, every day thousands of migrants form kilometric queues in front of these immigration offices in the city, the main entrance on the southern border of Mexico. Its objective is to ask the Mexican government for a temporary permit to be able to legally advance towards the border with the United States. Most of them hoping to cross to the other side before the imminent end of Title 42, the US policy promoted by Donald Trump used to expel migrants with health arguments.
Migrants line up to process immigration papers on May 8, in Tapachula, Mexico. Juan Manuel Blanco (EFE)
The migrants, Venezuelans, Haitians, Central Americans and even Africans, have been waiting for hours and even days for their turn. They are desperate. This Monday they have endured the relentless sun and temperatures of up to 35 degrees. In the afternoon, the sky also began to spit rain on their heads.
The news of the end of this policy, scheduled for May 11, has caused a crisis on the southern border of the United States, where the government has stationed 1,500 troops to reinforce security and prevent the passage of tens of thousands of migrants advancing towards that country. About 3,500 kilometers further south, on Mexico's border with Guatemala, there is another crisis.
The thousands of migrants who manage to reach Mexican soil accumulate while waiting for a permit to legally transit north. However, others decide to follow their path risking taking alternative routes where they cannot be detained by Immigration and be deported, risking being victims of robberies, kidnappings, extortion or even death.
Waiting for the procedure to move forward is also a painful process. "Brother, I've been queuing here for four days. I'm not going to move an inch," says a 37-year-old Venezuelan, as he endures the rain next to his wife.
People argue as they wait in line to process their papers, on May 8. Juan Manuel Blanco (EFE)
The buildup on the southern border is not new. Human rights organizations working on the ground estimate that between 40,000 and 50,000 migrants in Tapachula are trapped in this city, the main gateway on Mexico's southern border. Many of them have arrived here seeking a humanitarian visa or refugee status, but slow bureaucracy forces many to return or stalls them here for months.
On April 23, a caravan of about three thousand migrants left Tapachula for Mexico City. The leader of the caravan, Irineo Mujica, an activist with the organization Pueblo sin Fronteras, reached an agreement with the Mexican government to grant a temporary permit of 45 days to the migrants in exchange for breaking up the march that sought to generate a protest in the city.
In Tapachula, Migración opened a mobile office in the Ecological Park and began granting express permits to hundreds and then thousands of migrants. Some local newspapers report that every day the authorities hand out more than 1,000 permits a day. However, the queue never seems to end. The migrants say that the immigration agents worked until 2:00 in the morning to vent the place. But by mid-morning the next day the queue increases again.
Although Migration issues temporary permits non-stop, the flow of recent weeks far exceeds its capacity. The chaos among the migrants and the lack of organization on the part of the authorities causes many to spend days waiting in the untimely weather and sleeping in the surrounding streets.
A group of migrants shelter from the sun and heat outside the Inami offices on May 5. Juan Manuel Blanco (EFE)
The National Institute of Information reported Tuesday that between November 23 last year and May 6 issued 81,245 temporary permits to people from 103 countries on five continents of the world. Many migrants come from countries that were previously unthinkable to hear in this region such as Kyrgyzstan, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Estonia, Eritrea, the nation Sri Lanka, Reunion Islands among others. The countries that top the list of applicants are Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras and Angola.
No one knows what will happen after Thursday, when Title 42 is over. However, the crisis continues to worsen on both of Mexico's borders. "This is not going to end. Behind us come more and more. They say that the United States is going to open the doors and all we want is to be allowed to pass," says Óscar, a young Honduran who has been trapped in Tapachula for three months and three days waiting for the paper that will allow him to advance towards his destination, the north.
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