They Survived Mexico's 'Train of Death,' Only to Face Detention by US Immigration Mike LaSusa - VICE News
go to original August 6, 2015

Jose Nain Gutierrez shows off an AMIREDIS t-shirt with the group's contact information. (Angelika Albaladejo)

"It's been a long trip," said José Luis Hernández, gesturing as he described the 3,000-mile journey from Honduras to Washington, DC. His shirtsleeve fluttered where his right arm should be.

Hernández is the president of the Association of Migrants Returned with Disabilities (AMIREDIS), a community organization founded in his hometown of El Progreso, Honduras. All of AMIREDIS' more than 50 members were maimed while riding the northbound freight railway through Mexico, known as El Tren de la Muerte ("The Train of Death"), or La Bestia ("The Beast").

Many received extensive and often lifesaving treatment in Mexico before being deported back to Honduras. Now, the group provides support to others who were injured and returned to El Progreso, and engages in activism on issues affecting migrants and the disabled.

Despite the failure of their previous attempts to reach the United States — not to mention the obvious dangers of the journey — on February 26, Hernández and 16 other AMIREDIS activists set out from Honduras in a caravan to Washington, DC, with the intention of raising awareness about the circumstances that force people to make such a dangerous trip.

...AMIREDIS' ultimate — if unlikely — goal is to meet with US President Barack Obama to make their case for why the United States should stop providing military aid and training to Central America and Mexico. They say this "has only led to more violence and deaths." Instead of more police, AMIREDIS argues these countries need "more jobs with good wages and working conditions."

The activists are also asking the US to stop deportations of undocumented migrants. AMIREDIS says that deportations contribute to further migration cycles and harm migrants' home countries due to their heavy dependence on remittances from abroad.

VICE News is closely watching the international migrant crisis. Check out the Open Water blog here.

Read the rest at VICE News

Murder and Migration in Honduras: Immigrant America (VICE News)

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