Las Patronas also runs a shelter that provides weary migrants with hot meals, beds, baths, laundry and medical care.
Among those who stayed for a few days to rest and gather strength was Guadalupe, a Salvadoran migrant traveling with her 17-year-old daughter, Nicole. She says they will not be making the trip. beast In other words, I was taken off the freight train twice by immigration officials.
She recalled the experience as brutal.
“They beat a lot of people who were with us and shocked others with Tasers. They almost Tased me too. It was the worst experience we had in Mexico.”
Given the threat of kidnapping, sexual abuse, and extortion by Mexican drug cartels, for some, crossing Mexico is one of the most dangerous journeys they can undertake, even more so than journeys that begin in the Andes or the Caribbean.
But according to Guadalupe, they are often extorted by immigration and security officials tasked with enforcing the law in Mexico.
“When they got us off the train, many immigration officials asked us for bribes. If you had enough money, you could get through. This time, they didn't, and they sent us back to the Guatemalan border. That was the hardest part.”
