EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Thousands of migrants spent Christmas Eve in camps and shelters in south and central Chihuahua. Many of them are now on the move toward Juarez and the U.S. border, Mexican media reported.
Some 350 of the 800 to 1,000 migrants at a camp near the Alamillo train station 15 miles north of Chihuahua City left for Juarez on foot on Christmas; the camp had emptied by Tuesday morning, El Diario de Chihuahua reported.
The migrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Honduras arrived in trains since last Friday. Several minors including some with disabilities got off the trains, El Diario reported.
Members of a Christian youth organization in Chihuahua City distributed 3,000 meals on Christmas Eve to other groups of migrants staying at shelters like Casa del Migrante and other venues, El Heraldo de Chihuahua reported.
In Jimenez, a city at the southern tip of the state of Chihuahua, 2,500 migrants that arrived between Christmas Eve and Christmas were housed at the Gomez Morin Municipal Gym, El Diario reported. Some told authorities they got off trains in Durango, Mexico, that stopped running for the holidays, and walked five hours to Chihuahua because they want to get to the border as soon as possible.
“Let us remember that the purpose of life is to serve, to show compassion and be willing to help others. Thus, we availed the Manuel Gomez Morin Gym as a temporary shelter for the migrants newly arrived to our city,” Jimenez Mayor Marco Juarez Torres posted on Facebook.
The Central and South Americans have been arriving in Jimenez in groups of 200 and 300 but typically spent no more than 24 hours there, as they are intent on reaching the U.S. border, El Sol de Parral reported.
Mexican media said all the newly arrive migrants are heading for Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, where they plan to make their entry into the U.S.
In El Paso, city officials are preparing the Community Readiness Center to possibly house migrants. The city has been utilizing hotels in the past few weeks to house migrants whenever private nonprofit organizations reach capacity.
The groups headed to El Paso are small in comparison with the numbers being fielded at southwest border hotspots such as Eagle Pass, Texas, and Lukeville, Arizona.
NewsNation correspondent Ali Bradley tweeted on Tuesday that 66,000 migrants have entered the U.S. between ports of entry in the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol in December alone, and more than 60,000 did so in the Del Rio sector that includes Eagle Pass. Altogether, U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel have encountered or apprehended more than a quarter of a million migrants in the first 25 days of December.
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