Posted on October 15, 2019

Angry Migrants Vandalize Immigration Module in Chiapas

Mexico News Daily, September 4, 2019

Migrants hoping to travel to the United States damaged a service module set up by the National Immigration Institute (INM) in Tapachula, Chiapas, on Tuesday.

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Migrants were hoping that the INM would change their migratory status and allow them to exit the country freely, as most hope to reach the United States or Canada. At present the migrants are only allowed to leave the country through the southern border.

But the INM was only prepared to offer them a limited regularization of their status in Mexico. When the migrants realized they weren’t going to get the exit visas they wanted, they became angry and began throwing the tables and chairs that the INM had put in place for interviews, according to one migrant who spoke with the digital news outlet Animal Político.

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“INM officials, accompanied by translators for various languages, began attending to the first foreign citizens,” the statement said. “However, the service could not continue because some of the migrants started destroying things . . . throwing chairs, tables and portable bathrooms and manifesting their rejection of the services offered by the INM.”

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