Nonprofit urging Reynosa to find solution to overcrowding at migrant camp
For many migrants living in a park in Reynosa just blocks from the Hidalgo bridge, taking COVID-19 precautions isn't easy.
And now, a nonprofit is urging Reynosa city leaders to find a solution to the overcrowding.
Hundreds of migrants continue to arrive at La Plaza de la Republica in Reynosa either because they've arrived to the city or they've been expelled from the U.S. due to Title 42.
Ricardo Calderón Macías, the director of the Tamaulipan Institute for Migrants, says he needs the city of Reynosa to step up quickly.
Although it’s unclear how many migrants have tested positive at the park, organizations such as Doctors Without Borders provide COVID-19 tests and medical care when someone might have symptoms.
Macías said the local state welfare office should've taken quicker action from the start, adding that a reform to Mexican immigration law late last year keeps migrant families out of immigration stations but in state shelters.
In previous interviews, both state and local welfare officials have said they cannot force a family to receive assistance from them and they only intervene when someone's rights have been violated.
As for now, sources inside Reynosa city government say they'll be meeting again this week with state and federal officials to find a new location for the migrants.
“It might be in the Aquiles Serdan neighborhood of the city,” Macías said in Spanish, which is just west of a current migrant shelter and downtown Reynosa.