Number of migrants detained in Mexico surged 78% in January

Data released by the Mexican government shows a 78 percent increase in migrants detained in the country in January compared with the same period a year ago. Some of the 198 migrants who were detained after they were removed from two tourist buses used by smugglers to transport them in Oaxaca, Mexico, last Wednesday Mexico's National Institute of Migration reported a 78 percent increase of apprehensions of undocumented migrants in the month of January compared with the same period in 2021. The group pictured above, in all 16 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, were found hiding inside the cabin of the truck at a checkpoint in Tabasco on January 19 Mexican immigration agents took 16 migrants into custody moments after the driver of the small truck they were ferried escaped fled from a checkpoint in Chiapas last Tuesday Children and youths under age 18 made up 14.5 percent of the migrants detained, and a total of 780 were found to be unaccompanied by family members, the agency said. Some of the 388 undocumented migrants that were taken into custody on January 19 after security forces pulled over two tractor trailers in the Gulf state of Veracruz A migrant woman steps out of a truck she and 15 other individuals were found hiding in during a roadside inspection on January 19 in Tabasco Immigrant traffickers in Mexico general try to smuggle migrants in buses or freight trucks. A migrant waits for his chance to cross the border after United States Customs and Border Protection officers detain a couple of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border on the beach in Tijuana last Wednesday A migrant waits of the Mexican side of the border after United States Customs and Border Protection officers detained a couple of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border on the beach in Tijuana, Mexico, last Wednesday The latest figures were released the same day about 100 migrants protested in front of a shelter located in the southern Mexican municipality of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, and criticized the increase in raids, arrests and the government's slow response in providing humanitarian visas that permit them to move freely throughout the country.