MEXICO CITY: Mexican police released a group of 92 unauthorized migrants — six of them minors — who had been held for ransom in northeastern Mexico en route to the United States, government authorities reported.
Thousands attempt to cross the US-Mexico border every year without documentation. (Debi Fitzsimmons)
Most of the migrants come from Cuba, Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico, and were abducted when trying to cross the US border, according to the Government Secretariat. Federal forces located and released them in the border city of Reynosa.
The migrants are now under the custody of the authorities, who will provide them with consular aid and assist their return to their home countries.
The victims were “forced to call their relatives and to demand a ransom under the threat of harming them or their relatives,” a government press release reports.
During a raid on a house in Reynosa, police forces detained three people, allegedly members of a criminal organization linked to at least 96 other kidnappings.
Reynosa is a regular stop for many migrants in their bid to reach US soil as the city lies across the border of McAllen, Texas.
US border agents have caught roughly 152,000 people crossing the border during the last six months, 28 percent less than the same period in 2014, according to Department of Homeland Security data.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told press he believed the decline in detentions was a good indicator that fewer people were trying to cross illegally.
“The word’s gotten out that it’s now harder than it used to be to cross our southern border,” he said.
