Fleeing violence, Mexican officials and business owners seek U.S. asylum
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Dozens of law enforcement agents and business owners from across the border in Ciudad Juárez are seeking political asylum in the U.S., a situation that underscores the escalating drug war in Mexico and its widening effect on families, government officials and humanitarian groups say, the Dallas Morning News reports.
U.S. and Mexican officials refused to disclose the precise number of ‘credible fear’ claims -– the first step toward applying for political asylum. But other officials speaking on condition of anonymity say the number in the El Paso-Juárez corridor alone is at least 100 -– dramatically higher than the three announced last month by the U.S. government for the entire border.
Richard Marosi in San Diego reported earlier this month on similar movements on the border between Tijuana and the United States.
Such migrations have become increasingly common in metropolitan areas along the U.S.-Mexico border, as the ongoing violence of a brutal drug war has disrupted lives from Tijuana to Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande from Texas. The Mexican government has sent more than 3,000 troops into Tijuana in the last 1 1/2 years, and on several occasions soldiers have shot it out with drug cartel gunmen on residential streets. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City