PBI-Mexico expresses concern over federal police check at Saltillo Migrant Shelter

On July 20, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project expressed its “concern about the visit this morning of the federal police to the Casa Del Migrante de Saltillo, for possible intervention and immigration verification at the hostel.”

The Casa had tweeted that the federal police had tried “to do immigration check in the [shelter] under the argument of verifying immigration status of sheltered persons.”

Periódico Zócalo reports (in Spanish), “Elements of the Federal Police tried to enter the Casa del Migrante de Saltillo and threatened the shelter’s coordinator, José Luis Manzo, to cordon off and besiege the place if they were not allowed to detain four migrant people who requested asylum.”

That article also notes, “The activist and defender of the migrants said that when he questioned the policeman about his actions, he clarified that he was not authorized to detain migrants or verify their immigration status, so the agent released the four migrants, but threatened the coordinator.”

Newsweek adds (in Spanish), “The incident occurred around one o’clock in the afternoon, when the feds, who were transported in official vans of the unit, arrived at the facilities of the shelter with the intention of reviewing the migratory status of the refugees.”

That article notes, “When the people in charge of the place denied them access to the security elements, they proceeded to threaten them, especially the defenseman José Luis Manzano, who was warned that ‘he was getting into a problem’.”

24 Horas reports (in Spanish), “The Mesoamerican Migrant Movement asked the Government of Mexico to stop all acts of harassment of migrant homes and shelters.”

That article adds, “For its part, the Office in Mexico of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for compliance with the Migration Law, which in its Article 76, establishes: The competent authority ‘will not be able to make migratory verification visits in places where migrants are housed by civil society organizations or people who carry out humanitarian acts, assistance or protection to migrants’.”

Periódico Zócalo also reports that the Casa “filed a complaint yesterday with the Human Rights Commission of the State of Coahuila.”

Manzo says, “The house as a matter of principle has precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, has measures of the National Commission and the State Commission, and apart we are part of the Governance Protection Mechanism.”

On June 24, the head of the Mexican army announced that Mexico had deployed almost 15,000 soldiers and members of its National Guard in the north of the country to stem the flow of migration into the United States.

Thomson Reuters reports, “Mexico is trying to curb a surge of migrants from third countries crossing its territory in order to reach the United States, under the threat of tariffs on its exports by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made tightening border security a priority.”

On July 1, The Washington Post reported, “Mexico has detained 99,203 migrants this year and deported 71,110 of them, according to its immigration agency.”

PBI-Mexico has accompanied the Saltillo Migrant Shelter, which is located near the Mexico-Texas border, since February 2014.

PBI-Mexico has noted, “The Saltillo Migrant Shelter offers daily humanitarian assistance — including clothes, medicines, food, rest, and medical and psychological care — to hundreds of migrants crossing Mexico to reach the United States.”