Some migrants are engaging in a horrendous practice in order to be able to get to the United States.
Reuters is reporting that at least a dozen migrants from Central and South America have sewn their mouths shut in protest of Mexico’s attempts to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The protest is an attempt to “convince the country’s immigration authority to grant them passage toward the U.S. border,” Reuters reported.
“The migrants are sewing their lips together as a sign of protest,” activist Irineo Mujica said during the protest, according to Reuters. “We hope that the National Migration Institute can see that they are bleeding, that they are human beings.”
The Daily Wire notes:
Mexico’s migration agency (INM) condemned the protests in a statement, saying, “it is worrying that these measures have been carried out with the consent and support of those who call themselves their representatives, with the intention of pressuring authorities on an attention already provided.”
The statement went on to say that “The National Migration Institute (INM) of the Secretariat of the Interior reproaches violations against the physical and psychological integrity of migrant persons by exposing them to senseless actions, like the self harm they inflicted today by sewing or stitching their lips,” The Hill.
INM told Reuters that it has continued to process cases of migrants claiming to seek asylum, giving priority to children, teens, pregnant women, the disabled, the elderly, and purported crime victims. The process is slow, however, as INM receives more than a hundred asylum applicants every day.
“The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden grappled with a record-breaking 1.7 million border arrests last fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30. In July 2021 – the peak of last year’s rise – daily migrant arrests averaged about 6,500, according to government statistics,” Reuters reported separately.
“The nearly unprecedented number of arrests, which included many repeat crossers, caused backups of unaccompanied children in crowded border patrol stations …”
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