VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico (AP) 鈥 鈥淗ere, again.鈥
Yeneska Garc铆a鈥檚 face crumbled as she said it, and she pressed her head into her hands.
Since fleeing in January, the 23-year-old had trekked through the , narrowly survived being kidnapped by a Mexican cartel and waited months for an asylum appointment with the United States that never came. She finally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in May, only to have American authorities expel her.
Now she was back in southern Mexico, after Mexican immigration bused her to sweltering Villahermosa and dropped her on the street.
鈥淚 would rather cross the Darien Gap 10,000 times than cross Mexico,鈥 Garc铆a said, sitting in a migrant shelter.
She clutched a crinkled Ziploc bag that held her Venezuelan ID, an inhaler and an apple 鈥 her few remaining possessions.
Driven by mounting pressure from the U.S. to block millions of vulnerable people headed north, but lacking the funds to deport them, Mexican authorities are employing a simple but harsh tactic: wearing migrants out until they give up.
That means migrants are churning in limbo here as authorities round them up across the country and dump them in the southern Mexican cities of Villahermosa and . Some have been punted back as many as six times.
Mexican President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador said Monday that the policy protects migrants.
鈥淲e care a lot ... about keeping migrants in the southeast because crossing to the north is very risky,鈥 L贸pez Obrador said in his morning press briefing, responding to a question from The Associated Press about busing migrants to southern Mexico.
But the moves have forced migrants, including pregnant women and children, into even more precarious situations. That鈥檚 likely to worsen under
Mexico's actions explain a plunge in arrivals to the U.S.-Mexico border, which from an all-time high in December and persisted through the spring. That coincided with an increase in migrants in Mexico without legal permission, data from the country's immigration agency shows. U.S. officials mostly credit Mexican vigilance around rail yards and highway checkpoints.
鈥淢exico is the wall,鈥 said Josue Mart铆nez, a psychologist at Villahermosa's only migrant shelter, Peace Oasis of the Holy Spirit Amparito, which was bracing for a crush of people under to halt asylum processing when U.S. officials deem that is overwhelmed.
The small shelter has been scrambling since Mexico's government began pushing people back two years ago. Last month, it housed 528 people, up from 85 in May 2022.
鈥淲hat will we do when even more people arrive?鈥 Mart铆nez said. 鈥淓very time the United States does something to reinforce the northern border, we automatically know tons of people are coming to Villahermosa."
Migrants here walk or take buses north toward Mexico City, where they can request over U.S. Customs and Border Protection鈥檚 app, CBP One. But most never make it far enough north for the app's location requirement.
Checkpoints dot southern Mexican highways. Armed soldiers pull migrants off buses and round up those walking along roads and in surrounding mountains. Of two dozen migrants interviewed by the AP, all said they were extorted by law enforcement or Mexican migration officials to continue on their journeys. After dishing out hefty sums two or three times, families had nothing. They were then bused back south, where most were left on the streets.
Mexican authorities refer to the temporary detentions as 鈥渉umanitarian rescues.鈥
But Venezuelan Keilly Bola帽os says there is nothing human about them. She and her four children have been sent to southern Mexico six times. The 25-year-old single mother wants asylum so her 4-year-old daughter can get treatment for leukemia, in Venezuela.
Days earlier, she was captured in the northern state of Chihuahua, where she said members of the military beat her in front of her crying children, then loaded them onto a bus for the two-day journey to Villahermosa.
鈥淗ow can you run when you have four children? You can鈥檛,鈥 Bola帽os said.
The family slept on cardboard boxes alongside other migrants outside Villahermosa鈥檚 bus terminal. Bruises still lined Bola帽os' legs. Yet she planned to take a seventh swing at heading north. She has nowhere else to go.
鈥淚 know that all this struggling will be worth it some day,鈥 she added.
Mexico's tactics appear to be a way to appease the U.S., which has nations to help slow migration while failing to overhaul its own immigration system that most Americans agree is broken. Panama's incoming president has while Biden eased criticisms of El Salvador鈥檚 president after .
When Biden announced his new restrictions last week, he said he 鈥渄rastically鈥 cut migration to the border 鈥渄ue to the arrangement that I鈥檝e reached with President (L贸pez) Obrador.鈥 He said he also planned to work with on border issues.
But Michael Shifter, a senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, said such measures are only short-term solutions that don't address .
鈥淭hey say this is a regional challenge we all have to face together, which is true,鈥 Shifter said. "The problem is: if the U.S. can鈥檛 get its own house in order, that sends a signal to other governments asking: 鈥榃hy should we work with them if the U.S. itself is not capable of dealing with the issue?鈥欌
Some asylum seekers said they were ready to give up on their 鈥淎merican dream," but can't leave because they're cut off from their consulate or are out of money.
After being taken off of a bus, one group of migrants begged authorities to help them get back to Venezuela shortly before being sent back south.
鈥淲e just want to go to the embassy in Mexico City. To go back to Venezuela,鈥 30-year-old Fabiana Bellizar told officials, after being returned from northern Mexico a day earlier. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to be here anymore.鈥
They started traveling the same route the next morning.
Others said they would try to find work and a place to sleep in the city before continuing on.
L贸pez Obrador on Monday said work is offered to migrants in the south, but the few lucky people face precarious conditions. One migrant was paid $25 a day for 12 hours of work under the beating sun on a mango farm. Another said employers tried to coerce her into sex work.
Others are forced to take more dangerous routes, and into the arms of mafias looking to .
At the first sign of flashing lights, 27-year-old Honduran Alexander Amador dove behind a tree, scrambling for cover in the shadows cloaking the road between the Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco.
Amador and his two travel companions had been walking for 10 hours, running into the jungle to escape authorities trying to scoop them up along the highway. After being returned twice to southern Mexico while traveling by bus, it was the only thing the Hondurans could think of to continue onward.
But they were frightened, both of Mexican law enforcement and cartels. In the past year, security in southern Mexican states such as Tabasco and Chiapas over lucrative migrant routes.
"Here, you can't trust anyone. Everything is a danger to you," Amador said, swinging his backpack over his shoulder and walking into the darkness.
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Associated Press journalist Mar铆a Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.
