Mexico recently deployed 6,500 members of its newly formed National Guard to its southern states, along the border with Guatemala. Responding to pressures from Donald Trump’s administration, and to stresses placed on its own citizens by the constant flow of Central American, Cuban, Haitian, and African immigrants bound for the United States, the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is still building a response. Obrador stated that Mexico is trying to continue to help those fleeing poverty and violence at home, while still working to increase security and tighten border controls. Along the border, interceptions, detentions, and deportations of immigrants are increasing, straining Mexico’s already overtaxed capacity to hold detainees and process asylum seekers.
Photos from the Mexico-Guatemala Border
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A girl waits to be given asylum or a humanitarian visa at the immigration office on the Mexico-Guatemala international bridge in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas state, Mexico, on June 6, 2019. #
Pedro Pardo / AFP / Getty -
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An aerial picture shows immigrants and residents using a makeshift raft to cross the Suchiate River from Tecún Umán, Guatemala, to Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas state, Mexico, on June 6, 2019. #
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Members of Mexico's new National Guard stand by as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his counterpart in El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, attend a presentation of their new immigration program in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on June 20, 2019. #
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Central American immigrants cross the Suchiate River on a raft from Guatemala to Mexico near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, with the Tacaná Volcano in the background, on June 10, 2019. #
Marco Ugarte / AP -
Hundreds of Central American immigrants walk on a highway after crossing the Guatemala–Mexico border near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, on June 5, 2019. State and local police provided a security escort to the group as it walked along a highway leading from the border to the first major city in Mexico, Tapachula. #
Marco Ugarte / AP -
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An immigrant family attempts to escape from Mexican immigration authorities during a raid on their caravan, which had earlier crossed the Mexico-Guatemala border, on June 5, 2019. #
Marco Ugarte / AP -
Personnel from Mexicio's National Institute of Migration detain a man in Metapa de Domínguez, Chiapas state, during a joint operation with the Mexican government to stop a caravan of Central American immigrants on its way to the United States on June 5, 2019. #
Jose Torres / Reuters -
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A young man, sitting with other immigrants inside an immigration holding cell after being removed from a bus heading north out of Comitán, Chiapas state, Mexico, cries as he says that if he is sent back to Honduras, he will be killed, on June 16, 2019. In back is the Honduran immigrant Noe, 31, holding his 4-year-old daughter, Marlene. #
Rebecca Blackwell / AP -
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A Mexican marine stands guard on the Suchiate River, watching for immigrants crossing from Guatemala, as locals stand on a raft in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, on June 16, 2019. #
Idalia Rie / AP -
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Tirsa Maricela Benitez, a 33-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, poses with her new immigration card as she leaves a shelter in Mapastepec, Chiapas state, on April 28, 2019. After four months in Chiapas, Benitez and her family received the government IDs that allow them to stay legally for up to five years in the Mexican states that border Guatemala. #
Moises Castillo / AP -
In this May 28, 2019, photo, a Honduran immigrant woman who did not want to be identified talks about her experience being detained at the Siglo XXI immigrant detention center in Tapachula, Chiapas state. The woman said that she was locked up for two weeks with her 2-year-old daughter at the detention center. The story, from the Associated Press: Overcrowding, Abuse Seen at Mexico Migrant Detention Center. #
Marco Ugarte / AP -
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Central American immigrants arrive in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas state, Mexico, after illegally crossing the Suchiate River from Tecún Umán, Guatemala, on a makeshift raft on June 10, 2019. #
Pedro Pardo / AFP / Getty -
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