Local police detained a group of 44 Haitians trying to reach the Texas border via passenger bus in the Monterrey metro. The case comes days after caravans of Haitians tried to leave the southern state of Chiapas, but federal authorities held them back.
The detention took place on Sunday afternoon at the main bus station in Monterrey when a group of local police officers responded to a call about a possible case of human smuggling. The officers stopped bus #1866 from Transportes Frontera. Authorities detained the driver to determine if he was involved in the operation. Authorities were not able to find a guide or human smuggler in the group.
The local officers called for assistance from Mexico’s National Immigration Institute (INM) to determine the immigration statuses of the 44 Haitians. The INM agents confirmed that only five had legal documents. Of the group illegally in the country, authorities described them as 22 men, 11 women, and six underage teens or children.
A federal law enforcement source revealed to Breitbart Texas that the presence of Haitians has been less prominent in border states like Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas in recent months. Illicit transit through these states is more expensive for migrants. The federal law enforcement source revealed that cartel-connected human smuggling groups are also avoiding Haitians due to the current crackdown by authorities on that particular nationality.
Currently, approximately 30,000 Haitians and other Caribbean nationals remain in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, awaiting travel documents. Those groups have tried to walk in caravans to reach central Mexico, however, federal forces are physically restraining them.
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is an international journalist with more than 20 years of experience working in high-risk areas for print and broadcast news outlets investigating organized crime, corruption, and drug trafficking in the U.S. and Mexico. In 2016, Gerald took up the pseudonym of “Tony” when he joined Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project. Since then, he has come out of the shadows and become a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.