Cutting Off 'Beast' Train Through Mexico Won't Slow Migration to US John Stanton - BuzzFeed
go to original July 30, 2014

A Honduran boy rides a freight train through Mexico. (Don Bartletti/The Los Angeles Times)

International efforts to cut off access to “La Bestia” — a network of trains in Mexico — are expected to have little to no impact on the flood of undocumented children and other immigrants that has hit the Texas border, according to internal Obama administration documents obtained by BuzzFeed.

Although the pictures of children huddled atop train shipping cars have become a symbol of the dangerous trip north most immigrants face, Department of Homeland Security documents indicate less than 10% of immigrants end up riding the train, and those that do only ride the train for a few days before disembarking out of fear of being targeted by the violent Zetas cartel or MS13 gang.

Travel on the train is extremely dangerous. Derailments are frequent, including an August 2013 incident that injured scores of people and killed 11. Rapes are common on La Bestia, and immigrants are routinely robbed or extorted during the trip.

...Mexican officials have begun focusing on La Bestia in recent months, agreeing to arrest immigrants found waiting for the train. The company that is set to take control of the the train, Ferrocarriles Chiapas-Mayab, has announced it plans to spend 2 billion pesos over the next five years to improve the train, including speeding the train up significantly in an effort to discourage riders.

Read the rest at BuzzFeed

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