Widespread & systemic abuse of migrants by Mexican law enforcement officers is 1 of many reasons Remain in Mexico can never be made safe. I read thousands of (anonymized) pro bono interviews with migrants in RMX 2.0 for @humanrightsfirst report. What I learned was horrifying. 🧵 Mexican police & other govt officials often work directly with organized criminal groups to terrorize migrants. ~400 migrants in RMX said police, National Guard, or INM carried out or participated in violent crimes against them in Mexico, including kidnappings, beatings, rape. 2/

Today at the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana I watched as MX and US authorities allowed 26 Ukrainian asylum seekers to enter the U.S. and turned away a Mexican family who'd been waiting alongside them, saying they couldn't seek asylum bc of Title 42 and would have to wait. 🧵 A Mexican municipal police officer asked the group their county of origin. When they told him they were Ukrainian, he counted them and reported the number by radio. The officer told us MX municipal police are now monitoring the POE at all times to coordinate entry of Ukrainians.

New from @humanrights1st: Biden admin continues using Title 42 to violate refugee laws and destroy lives, with new cruel tactics to expel asylum seekers to Haiti and other countries they fled. 7647+ were kidnapped/attacked in Mexico
humanrightsfirst.org/resource/illeg…
From my interviews: 🧵 A Honduran man sought asylum in Texas after escaping kidnappers who had abducted him outside a grocery store in Reynosa as he was buying tortillas for his wife. DHS turned him over to MX immigration, who deported him to Guatemala, where he remains separated from his wife. 2/

Yesterday while I was visiting a Tijuana shelter for @humanrights1st INM vans delivered 30+ tired, disoriented asylum seekers (families w kids) directly from the border after the US gov had expelled them from TX under Title 42. They joined 750+ already living in the church. 1/n They shuffled inside; CBP had removed they shoelaces. No bags bc CBP had thrown away a their stuff. The pastor explained they'd been returned to Mexico and bc of T42, nobody can request US asylum. If they can't go home, they can wait here, but they'll be waiting a while. 2/n

In Tijuana for @humanrights1st I met hundreds of asylum seekers trapped in danger, blocked from seeking US protection under Title 42. Many running from gangs threatening to kill them. Trafficking survivors who escaped their captors. Domestic violence survivors in hiding. 1/6 A indigenous woman was kidnapped in Mexico while pregnant, beaten and abused for months. Unable to seek US protection after escaping bc of Title 42, she gave birth to sick baby who died in a Tijuana shelter where she’s been hiding, waiting for US asylum processing to resume. 2/6

Asylum seeking families expelled to MX under Title 42 endure verbal and physical abuse in U.S. custody. U.S. immigration officers insult them, call them animals, dogs, throw their belongings in the trash. Some examples, each from different families expelled in past 2 weeks: 1/6 ALL held in holding cells kept painfully cold, allowed only 1 layer of clothing and the rest thrown in trash, given small foil blanket. Kids got sick, convulsing and vomiting. U.S. officers did nothing. One asylum seeker saw CBP kick a child, throw his blanket in trash. 2/6

Visiting Tijuana shelters with @AlOtroLado_Org this week. One shelter receives ~100 tired, disoriented asylum seekers a day; almost all families flown from Texas and expelled under Title 42. More than 400 asylum seekers are crammed inside. @humanrights1st 1/5 Shelter director said "the first thing I ask them is, do you know what city you're in? Some think they're in California and I have to explain they've been sent back to Mexico. People here are very sad and disillusioned." 2/5

After having been kidnapped in MX and nearly drowning en route to Texas, a Salvadoran family fleeing death threats asked for U.S. asylum last week. Instead of protecting them, U.S. officers detained them in a freezing cold room for days where the kids got sick @humanrights1st 1/4 US immigration officers "threw out everything we'd brought right in front of our eyes. Jewelry, photos, our food, medications for the children. My daughter has asthma. They threw away her inhaler.” 2/4

In a Tijuana shelter, I spoke with five Central American asylum-seeking mothers who U.S. immigration officers had expelled to Mexico under Title 42 with their young children within the past two weeks. Their stories are heartbreaking. @humanrights1st 1/6 All had crossed from Reynosa into Texas. All had been transferred by bus and plane to Tijuana after spending several days in freezing cold holding cells. Some tried to ask for asylum. “We were getting death threats in Guatemala. We tried to tell them but they wouldn’t listen.”2/6

Today I accompanied our partners @HaitianBridge to a Tijuana shelter housing Haitian asylum seekers. One of them fled Haiti after an opposing political party tried to kill him. @humanrights1st 1/7 Because of Title 42 border closures, he’s now been waiting over a year in Tijuana to request U.S. asylum. He’s been robbed at gunpoint twice, and he lost factory job after his visa expired this week. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.” 2/7