Mexico houses migrants sent back from US border

A group of some 80 migrants were expelled across the border from Texas to Mexico on Monday under pandemic-era rules that deny them a chance to seek humanitarian protection.

The growing number of migrants deported to Mexico has forced Ciudad Juarez authorities to repurpose a gymnasium turning it into a temporary shelter with a capacity for 400 people, as the border city's other shelters are at maximum capacity.

Bunk beds were set up for families to rest as they decide whether to return to their countries or stay and work in Mexico while they wait for another opportunity to cross the border into the United States.

One Salvadoran migrant, who did not want to give her name because of safety concerns, made the trip with her four-year-old daughter but was deported back to Mexico by U.S. officials.

She said she had made the trip so as to be reunited with her two-year-old daughter who is in the U.S. in the care of her mother-in-law.

She wants to look for a place in Ciudad Juarez to try to cross the border once more.

A Guatemalan migrant made her unsuccessful crossing with her young son with the help of a coyote that the boy's father arranged from the United States.

Now she waits for the child's father to send money for the return ticket home to Guatemala so she can leave the child in the care of their family.

She plans to attempt the crossing again without putting their child at risk, and get work so she, along with the father can support their two children.

Children traveling alone are allowed to remain in the U.S. to pursue asylum claims while nearly all single adults are expelled to Mexico under pandemic-era rules.

U.S. authorities reported more than 100,000 encounters on the southern border in February, the highest since a four-month streak in 2019.