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Mayorkas visit to southern border Friday will be closed to the media

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Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas will visit the southern border Friday for a briefing on the influx of the unaccompanied children arriving at the border.

Due to Covid-19 precautions, the trip will not be open to the media and there will be no post-tour press brief.

According to a press release, Mayorkas will arrive in El Paso, Texas with a bipartisan delegation of Senators, including Se. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to view operations and receive a briefing on the processing, shelter and transfer of unaccompanied children arriving at the border.

“We’ll be looking at some of the issues including this huge problem with unaccompanied kids coming across the border,” Portman said to reporters Thursday. “Those numbers have increased even more dramatically to the point that right now we have a true crisis in the detention facilities … We’re gonna talk about that tomorrow and we’ll see some of those facilities.”

The announcement comes after the Biden administration’s reported gag order on border officials.

Follow Annaliese Levy on Twitter @AnnalieseLevy

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Immigration

Mexican railway forced to suspend trains after numerous deaths from migrants jumping on board

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A railway was forced to temporarily suspend train runs in northern Mexico due to the dangers and injuries occurring from numerous migrants attempting to climb aboard its freight cars.

The Mexican railway Ferromex said it had to halt 60 trains carrying cargo that would fill a whopping 1,800 tractor trailers due to the at least “half-dozen regrettable cases of injuries or deaths” of migrants jumping on the freight cars, the company said in a statement. Many migrants even hopped on moving freight cars “despite the grave danger that represents.”

International trade will be affected by the halt, and the impact of the train stoppage will be “very important,” said Ana Bertha Gutiérrez, the international trade coordinator for the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness.

The Associated Press reports:

The company said there were about 1,500 people gathered at a rail yard in the city of Torreon, in the northern border state of Coahuila. The company also reported about 800 migrants waiting at the freight yards in Irapuato, in the north-central state of Guanajuato.

About 1,000 people were reported to be riding freight cars on the train line that connects the city of Chihuahua and the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Gutiérrez noted the impact could be felt in industrial states like Nuevo Leon, Baja California and Chihuahua, given their links to the U.S. market.

Migrants have long used the trains, known collectively as “The Beast,” to hitch rides from as far south as Oaxaca state to the U.S. border. About a decade ago, the Mexican government briefly staged raids on the trains to discourage the practice, but later largely abandoned the effort, the Associated Press added.

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