How did 14,000 Haitians travel across Mexico without the government noticing?

It started with a trickle. A dozen people in one day, maybe 20 the next day. Then several bus loads in the weeks that followed. People noticed the presence of black people in the bus stations of cities like Saltillo and Monclova in the Mexican state of Coahuila, but they didn’t pay much attention to them.

By one day last week, 14,000 Haitian immigrants met in the town of Acuña on the other side of the Rio Grande from Del Rio. The imperceptible trickle of weeks turned into a humanitarian crisis overnight, and people began to ask, “How did this happen?”

The question tries to explain why such a crisis occurred when the Mexican government agreed to stop the flow of migrants to the US on Mexico’s southern border. That is why we regularly see pictures in the news of the disbanding of migrant caravans by the Mexican National Guard in the state of Chiapas, right after the migrants crossed the border from Guatemala.

But this time the flow of migrants does not take place in caravans. Instead, Haitians come to Mexico from different countries where they have been refugees for years, especially since the devastating earthquake of 2010. After another earthquake amid a political and economic crisis earlier this year, many gave up hope of returning to their homeland and made their way to the USA.

They came in small groups, not in a large caravan, through various entry points to Mexico and made their way north. Word of mouth suggests that the city of Acuña is a better environment for migrants than other Rio Grande cities, safer than the border towns of Tamaulipas, and less National Guard surveillance than Piedras Negras. In addition, the Rio Grande is flatter and easier to cross in this area. The authorities are also investigating the possibility that many were lured there by organized crime groups.

Yet this does not answer the question of how the migrants arrived. Because they had to cross almost all of Mexico to get to Acuña without being discovered or stopped.

This is what the Governor of Coahuila, Miguel Ángel Riquelme, would like to know.

“It is clear that the federal government has made no effort to contain it,” he told me. “Because they were on the road for some time. How did they cross the country? How long were you on the road? “

To get to Acuña from Mexico City by land, one person must travel through five states. Although the National Guard patrols bus stations, has checkpoints on the Coahuila highways, and patrols railways, these migrants have not been stopped.

Last month migrants came to Acuña and crossed Del Río, where they were captured by border police and placed in a makeshift camp under the bridge. And yet people kept coming until more than 14,000 migrants were distributed under the bridge and in emergency shelters in Acuña and the surrounding cities. A camp of 14,000 people equates to nearly 10% of the population of Acuña and nearly half of the population of Del Rio. Border officials screened the people, allowing some to apply for asylum and others to deport, only to eventually disband the camp.

This is not the first time a migrant crisis has hit the border between Coahuila and Texas. At various times in 2019 and 2020, thousands of people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras were stranded in Piedra Negras and Acuña. A few months ago there was an influx of Venezuelans. But this youngest group of Haitians is by far the largest. The largest number of migrants who gathered at the border before this week never exceeded 5,000.

Governor Riquelme told me the main goal now is to prevent migrants from dispersing in the cities of northern Coahuila, where they will be harder to find. So far, the migrant crisis has not turned into a health or safety crisis. Many Acuña residents respond by giving migrants food, clothing, or toiletries after people left the bridge camp and returned to Acuña because there was nothing to eat. Other residents have taken migrants into their homes or donated them to shelters.

In the rest of the country, immigration is a topic that comes and goes on the news but doesn’t cause the political fuss like in the United States. That’s not to say that people don’t notice. From time to time, immigrants appear more frequently in cities across the country. Their skin is often darker than that of local residents and some of them are of African descent.

In my hometown of Torreón, halfway between Mexico City and Ciudad Juárez, hundreds of Central American immigrants pass by every month. Some stay a few days or weeks to earn some money, showing up at intersections wiping windshields, selling jewelry, or asking for food or money.

Locals notice this and at times they are suspicious, perhaps fearful that the presence of immigrants will fuel crime. For others, the thought that migrants are just passing through is comforting, their goal is to reach another country. But any fear of immigrants is kept in check because it is not fueled for political ends and causes xenophobic panic.

Immigration becomes a political problem, however, as after failing to prevent migrants from reaching the border, the Mexican government faces the logistical nightmare of sending them back. Haitians are taken to shelters and then fly to Port-au-Prince, although many migrants have not been there for nearly a decade. The US authorities are doing the same and flying people out of San Antonio.

There are already reports that Haitians stop their travel on their way north and seek shelter in cities on the way to learn about the situation at the border. They will wait for the current crisis to subside, then they will continue their journey and drive to the border in a trickle.

Javier Garza Ramos is a Coahuila, Mexico-based journalist and co-host of the Expansión Daily podcast. He wrote this column for the Dallas Morning News.

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