Seeking asylum in the U.S. at the Mexico/Texas border has been a risky proposition for years. But aid workers, asylum attorneys, and service providers interviewed by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) say, in recent months, there has been a huge increase in kidnappings for ransom and modern slavery for migrants at the border. This increase is being attributed to the new U.S. immigration app CBP One coupled with rampant criminality in the main location migrants are channeled to.

Grabbed out of tents and exploited for ransom

Most migrants and asylum seekers coming from Mexico are channeled by U.S. border policies through Tamaulipas, an area in Mexico known by both governments as extremely dangerous for migrants due to numerous rival gangs operating with relative impunity in the region. However, researchers, humanitarian workers, and shelter staff interviewed found that since 2023 the kidnapping and extortion of migrants has greatly increased, describing it as the “worst period of violence” they’ve ever seen, both in numbers and brutality.

Those interviewed said:

“Most, or all, of the people served in the latter half of last year and this year have been kidnapped, battered, raped, forced to work for the cartel, or experienced other forms of abuse.”

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