A rumor quickly spread about a section of the US-Mexico border. It was first a media outlet that published an out-of-context note, in which they announced that the Joe Biden administration would stop the deportations of Venezuelans under Title 42, in two border areas of Texas.
“We are here and they told us three days ago that only the Venezuelans would let us through,” said Genesis, a Venezuelan migrant who is with her four children and her husband.
They claimed Border Patrol agents were instructed to let them pass, likely because the Mexican government no longer wanted to accept returning Venezuelans.
“We have been here in Ciudad Juarez for four months, waiting for them to help us…they told us yes, that they were going to let us through, because of all the dictatorship that exists in our country…because of all that we made it through.”
Reports circulating on social media led many to reach gate 36 of the border wall, in Ciudad Juarez, but the hope of these migrants did not last long.
“We’ve been here since dawn…with our children…we’re not from bad families. We just want to cross and continue to our destination”, attacks the Venezuelan migrant, Pedro Manuel.
The agglomeration of migrants since Monday morning forced the closure of the border post where even pedestrians could not enter the bridge which only opened after being closed for several hours.
The Venezuelan Paula Torres assures that “there are people who have passed and when they pass, we have lost communication and we know nothing about them”.
We learn that the migrants who were able to cross the weekend were expelled a few hours later, but from Matamoros. While the Border Patrol states that the border remains closed to irregular immigration, this group – the vast majority of whom are Venezuelans – assure that the days are increasingly difficult and that their lives are in danger.