SAMANTHA APPLETON

Mexico's Southern Border

The US-Mexican border is well documented in its tragedy and difficulty, but Mexico's southern border is the first and most difficult hurdle for Central Americans. It is a notoriously dangerous stretch. Robbers, corrupt immigration and police officers often rob, beat and kill naive travelers headed North. Once detained by Mexican officials, they are sent to a main detention center in Tapachula where they are bussed back, with the help of the US government, to their native countries. Nearly every detainee says he or she will try again. They have nothing to lose. 

  • Illegal immigrants discuss ways to jump a freight train under the cover of darkness in Tapachula, Mexico.
  • Illegal immigrants talk to Grupos Beta workers in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico while waiting to catch a ride on a freight train heading north. Grupos Beta, an arm of the Instituto Nacional de Migracion, provides illegal immigrants with information about their rights but claims it does not detain them or reveal them to immigration officials.
  • Detained illegal immigrants are forced to remove belts and shoelaces before entering the detention center in Tapachula, Mexico near the Guatemala border.
  • Central American detainees in Tapachula, Mexico.
  • A detained immigrant shows his broken rib while another peeks out from a small window in the detention room. The injured man said police beat and robbed him and left him in an abandoned shed north of Tapachula, Mexico.
  • Illegal Immigrants rest at the Casa Migrantes,  a Catholic safe house in Tapachula Mexico near the Guatemala border. These men (left and top) were robbed of everything -- including shirt and shoes. They planned to continue their journey north to the US.
  • Moises Eduardo Lopez Gordillo takes a flying leap into the river that separates Mexico from Guatemala. He lived on the riverbanks for over three months, saying he was trying to {quote}go to America to work for dollars.{quote}
  • Moises Eduardo Lopez Gordillo with his posessions on the border of Mexico and Guatemala. He lived on the riverbanks for over three months.
  • Moises Eduardo Lopez Gordillo in a safehouse in Tapachula after immigrant officials picked him up and prepared to repatriate him to his native Honduras.
  • A Honduran man crosses the river between Tecun Uman, Guatemala and Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico on his way to the U.S.  For 5 pesos per person -- approximately 60 cents --hundreds cross the river illegally. The bridge in the background is a heavily guarded, legal entry point..
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