Mexico steps up migrant raids in city near Guatemalan border

By EDGAR H. CLEMENTE
Associated Press

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Mexican immigration agents and National Guard have stepped up raids on migrants staying in small hotels and on the streets of the southern city of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border. The city has become a sort of way station for migrants from Central America, Haiti, Cuba and other places, because Mexico requires many people file for refugee or asylum status there. Migrants rights’ activists complain Tapachula has become a kind of holding pen, because many people are stuck there for months on end, waiting for slow application processes. Raids have been a constant, but this week activists say agents swept up people from outside migrant shelters.