Mexico relocates migrant camp; Haitians appear at border

MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities said Tuesday they have relocated a migrant camp that sprung up in a park in the border city of Reynosa, moving about 2,000 people from Central American and Haiti to a shelter in the city, across the border from McAllen, Texas.

The camp of migrants mainly from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti sprung up after U.S. officials, citing the pandemic, invoked a health rule that denies migrants a chance to seek asylum.

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said the migrants were taken near midnight Monday to the shelter, which it said will have better hygiene and food services.

But on Monday, people in another border city, Nuevo Laredo, said hundreds of migrants, mainly Haitians, have streamed into the city, which is across the border from Laredo, Texas

The rush apparently started after the U.S. began processing some asylum seekers there.

The Catholic bishop of Nuevo Laredo said Monday that migrant shelters there are already overcrowded, with some migrants sleeping outside in tents.

Bishop Enrique Sánchez Martínez said migrants started streaming into Nuevo Laredo in late April,.

Marvin Ajic, the director of the Casa Nazareth shelter, said that around April 16, Mexican authorities notified the shelters that the United States would resume processing asylum claims for humanitarian reasons.