Mexico City, February 15 (RHC)-- Riot police in northern Mexico have blocked hundreds of desperate Central American migrants as they tried to escape an abandoned factory complex where they’ve been imprisoned while waiting for the U.S. to process their asylum claims.  

More than 1,700 migrants have been held in the maquiladora in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras since February 5th, after they arrived in a caravan of people seeking asylum in the U.S.  The vast majority have remained prisoners at the site, after the Donald Trump administration adopted a “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers—processing just 15 asylum applications per day at the nearby Eagle Pass border crossing. 

One of the migrants, who requested anonymity, told reporters: “We are not allowed to go outside.  They have locked us up as prisoners.  We need organizations to support us with hats and gloves, or with bedding and scarves.  That’s what we need, because the cold is tremendous.  And the real truth is that there are children here.  There are sick people and there are seniors.  We’re locked up in an abandoned factory, and now we’re using it as a shelter.”