Several migrant families on the border told CNN they were fleeing the fallout of Mexico’s bloody national elections, which saw dozens of political candidates assassinated and hundreds threatened on the campaign trail.
All said they hoped for asylum from the US government. And all said they had not heard of a new executive order by US President Joe Biden blocking asylum requests from most people illegally crossing the southern border during periods of high volume.
A few miles east along the border, CNN met several more Mexican families who had been sheltering for days in a tent erected by a local humanitarian group. Bottles of water had been left out for them, along with signs warning to wait for Border Patrol agents to show up, rather than attempt to walk any further under the hot sun.
Some were fleeing general violence, a lack of jobs, kidnapping threats made to their families. Two men with a family sitting on the ground in the stifling heat said they too had fled Mexico following the elections. They had received threats for supporting the wrong candidate in their town, one said.
“We didn’t vote for the candidate – they were forcing us to.”
A wave of political killings and threats
US officials have been keeping watch for new migration surges this summer. The violence surrounding Mexico’s election this month is just one of many factors pushing some families to try to cross the border.
“Whether we’re talking about elections in Mexico or here in the US, it always provokes a level of uncertainty with everyone, generally, but especially in the migrant population,” a Homeland Security official previously told CNN.
The June 2 vote was the biggest and most violent in Mexico’s history. With 20,000 electoral positions up for grabs, the scale of bloodshed committed by those attempting to influence the vote was massive; at least 34 political candidates assassinated by criminal organizations during the campaign season.
A May 28 report by research group Integralia identified 749 victims of political violence in Mexico, including 231 killings. Hundreds of candidates reported being threatened, and many dropped out of their races, fearing for their lives.