Police in Ciudad Juarez, on the United States-Mexico border, have arrested two teenagers for allegedly holding four migrants captive and subjecting them to abuse for a month.
The Mexican city’s municipal police department said Tuesday that officers had been called to reports that the men were being held against their will. When the officers arrived at an address in La Campesina, they saw people waving, trying to get their attention.
The department said the men, all from Jordan, had been subjected to abuse for 30 days by the 16- and 17-year-old suspects, who had frequently threatened to shoot them with a shotgun officers also found.
The incident happened around 35 miles from the U.S. border crossing into El Paso, Texas, one of the busiest ports of entry along the southwest border. In Fiscal Year 2024, 7.7 million crossings were made there.
Tuesday’s incident is certainly not the first of its kind in Juarez, where many migrants arrive waiting for appointments with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In June, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security worked with Mexican authorities to rescue 13 migrants who were being held against their will. The victims had been beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted.
Investigators were only able to locate the stash house—a property used by smugglers to house immigrants—because two other victims had escaped. They had entered the U.S. illegally, beaten and burned, and explained what had happened to them.
In August, officials in Chihuahua announced they had rescued some 1,245 migrants from criminal gangs in the previous seven months.
“We have diminished migration flows in terms of caravans and people arriving on trains. But I must point out we are seeing more people who are being kidnapped and extorted,” Chihuahua State Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya said at the time.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) told Newsweek in July that migrants often turn to organized crime when they cannot reach the border alone.
“Obviously, you’re going to go to whoever lies to you and tells you that they will get you across the border for whatever amount of money they ask you,” Rafael Velasquez Garcia, the IRC’s director in Mexico, said.
After Tuesday’s rescue, Juarez police said the four Jordanians had been taken to the social work department at the University District police station, where they were given food and drink.
The two suspects were charged with federal firearms and explosives charges, as well as the deprivation of liberty.
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