Many Asylum Seekers In Mexico Are From Far Beyond Central America

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July 20, 20195:14 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered

JAMES FREDRICK

A new Trump administration rule says people seeking asylum must have already applied and been rejected in another country. Most are from Central America, but some are coming from Africa and elsewhere.


SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

Mexico and the U.S. are working together to slow down the number of people seeking asylum at the U.S. southern border. Most of these people come from Central America, a region wracked by violence and poverty. But many of the migrants caught in this U.S.-Mexico dragnet come from much farther away. James Fredrick brings us a story from southern Mexico.

JAMES FREDRICK: I first met Fortune Amo back in June outside the Siglo XXI immigrant detention center in Tapachula near Mexico's southern border with Guatemala. He sounded upset and frantic.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

FORTUNE AMO: I'm suffering a lot of my life, but I'm looking at my life. I need to go to a good life.

FREDRICK: This 25-year-old Congolese refugee was surrounded by hundreds of others from Congo, Cameroon, Angola and Haiti. They were all trying to find a way to get documentation from the migration agency as deportations were on the rise in Mexico. Most of these people were sleeping here on the street.

This week, I caught up with Amo again in Tapachula, and he was totally different. After being detained for a few days by migration authorities, he was given a 30-day visa to travel through Mexico. He was staying in a house on a street filled with black migrants.

More:
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/20/743801012/many-asylum-seekers-in-mexico-are-from-far-beyond-central-america