Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies has published a new report on the DailyMail.com website about his visit to La Bestia (The Beast) train in Mexico. Also known as the “Death Train” because of its high level of danger, the train is actually a set of freight train networks that can either move migrants along Mexico’s east side toward Texas or along the country’s west side toward California and Arizona. According to Bensman, “La Bestia has been really roaring at full-throat the last couple of years.”
The trains typically bring migrants to areas in Mexico near the border. After leaving their train, the migrants–usually very poor natives of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala–then make their way across the border, expecting to either be admitted by U.S. officials or to avoid them altogether.
The migrants Bensman talked to spoke freely of their journey so far and indicated that railroad guards had not only shown little interest in interfering with them but had actually helped them find the trains they were looking for. This stands in sharp contrast to a similar but much smaller surge of train-centered migration during the Obama years. Back then, Mexican officials actively searched for illegals along the train routes, and U.S. authorities deported those caught north of the border. But, as Bensman says, “That was another era.” Nowadays, officials in Mexico look the other way, and those in America are as apt to welcome the illegals as not.
Thus, under the Biden administration, La Bestia rolls along.
For more, see the DailyMail.com website.