The first asylum seekers from a Mexican border camp that had become a symbol of Trump-era immigration restrictions entered the United States on Thursday under a new policy meant to end the hardships endured by migrants in dangerous border towns.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the initial group comprised 27 people who had been living in the makeshift camp in Matamoros opposite Brownsville, Texas.
Some residents have lived there for more than a year under former President Donald Trump’s controversial Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) programme requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for US court hearings.
TIJUANA
Nearly a year after the coronavirus forced Nadley Morales into a harsh and lonely isolation, public health officials showed up on her door-step in one of Tijuana’s upscale neighborhoods.
It took the researchers almost 15 minutes just to persuade the 61-year-old to open the door so her son could get a COVID-19 test. “And with good reason,” she later said, given Tijuana’s high rate of positive tests and high death rate from the disease, and her own diabetes.
Scientists and students from the Autonomous University of Baja California began ringing Baja doorbells on Feb. 1, offering free COVID-19 testing as part of a research study to better understand the infection rates of a disease that moves freely between borders.
History of abuse for Mexican police unit in migrant massacre
Alfredo Peña And Mark Stevenson
Associated Press
Tags:
FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2021 file photo, German and Maria Tomas pose for a photo holding a framed portrait of their grandson Ivan Gudiel who they believe is one of the charred corpses found on a rural road on the Mexico-US border township of Camargo, at their home in Comitancillo, Guatemala. A dozen special operations officers have been ordered held for trial on charges they shot to death at least 14 Guatemalan migrants and two Mexicans on a rural road in the border township of Camargo. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros, File) (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
This projected desalination plant in Los Cabos, whose construction received final approval in October 2020, will have a capacity to purify 250 litres of water per second and its cost will exceed 55 million dollars, according to figures from the Baja California Sur state government. CREDIT: Government of Baja California Sur
MEXICO CITY, Jan 31 2021 (IPS) - Mexico is seeking to mitigate water shortages in part of its extensive territory by resorting to seawater, through the expansion of desalination plants. But this solution has exorbitant costs and significant environmental impacts.
Among the advantages of these water treatment plants, Gabriela Muñoz, a researcher at the public university El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, highlighted the expansion of water sources and the production of water for human consumption.