Police Rescue 45 Central American Migrants in Northeast Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Police officers in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas rescued 45 migrants from Guatemala and Honduras in Reynosa, located across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group said.

State police officers responding to a tip from the public went to a house in the border city’s Puertas del Sol district, where people were being held against their will, the joint state-federal agency said in a statement.

Officers found 42 men and three women at the house, of whom 44 were from Guatemala and one from Honduras, the agency said, adding that the migrants were headed for the United States.

No arrests were made during the operation, the Tamaulipas Coordination Group said.

The migrants were turned over to the National Migration Institute, or INM, for processing.

Tens of thousands of Central Americans undertake the hazardous journey across Mexico each year on their way to the United States.

The trek is a dangerous one, with criminals and corrupt Mexican officials preying on the migrants.

Gangs kidnap, exploit and murder migrants, who are often targeted in extortion schemes, Mexican officials say.

In 2010, 72 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil and Ecuador were murdered in Tamaulipas.

Mexican marines found the migrants’ bodies at a ranch in the city of San Fernando on Aug. 24, 2010, marking the worst massacre of migrants in Mexico’s history.