Mexico operations thwart child, family migrants

In this Aug. 27, 2014 photo, a sole clown shoe belonging to Honduran migrant Jorge Ruiz Williams, 20, lies atop a freight train after it arrived at the station in Ixtepec, Mexico. Migrants who had been riding atop the train from Arriaga to Ixtepec reported that authorities staged a raid on the train in the middle of the night, arresting many migrants and sending others fleeing into the darkness. Ruiz Williams was one of the lucky handful who was able to escape the police and re-board the train. Seen later in a migrant shelter in Ixtepec, he said he had lost both shoes, but the rest of his professional clown costume was intact. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) In this Aug. 27, 2014 photo, a sole clown shoe belonging to Honduran migrant Jorge Ruiz Williams, 20, lies atop a freight train after it arrived at the station in Ixtepec, Mexico. Migrants who had been riding atop the train from Arriaga to Ixtepec reported that authorities staged a raid on the train in the middle of the night, arresting many migrants and sending others fleeing into the darkness. Ruiz Williams was one of the lucky handful who was able to escape the police and re-board the train. Seen later in a migrant shelter in Ixtepec, he said he had lost both shoes, but the rest of his professional clown costume was intact. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

By Associated Press August 30, 2014 6 min read

CHAHUITES, Mexico (AP) – Mexico is making a big effort to stop the flow of Central Americans trying to reach the United States, and has dramatically cut the number of child migrants. But it is unclear for how long federal officials will keep up the raids.

A federal police officer said his group was told they would be stationed in southern Mexico for six months. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn’t allowed to talk to the media.

Convoys of Mexican federal police and immigration service employees in southern Mexico have been scouring the tracks of the infamous freight train known as “La Bestia,” or The Beast, that has long carried crowds of migrants on its lumbering route north. They have also set up moving roadblocks, checking the documents of passengers on interstate buses.

Associated Press journalists witnessed dozens of federal police and Mexican immigration agents storming the train as it came to an unscheduled stop in the post-midnight darkness Friday.

“We’re federal agents! Give up! You’re surrounded! Come down carefully!” the lawmen shouted to the huddled, stunned migrants.