in the southern mexican city of
tapachula along the mexico guatemala
border there's a battle between truth
and misinformation
in a migrant community often blinded by
hope and desperation
is sleeping at jesus pastor shelter with
her young daughter and her husband
she pulls out her phone and shows us
updates that she's been following since
leaving venezuela she's saying that they
just crossed the river
this is the kind of stuff that they see
and a lot of migrants are thinking okay
well they're crossing maybe i can go and
i cross myself noletsis is one of 1200
migrants at this shelter where every
spot is taken many of them by children
outside dozens more camp out in the
blistering heap their despair soon turns
into intrigue as aid workers begin
handing out papers explaining the legal
process of border crossings so josue is
doing an information session right here
very informal people walked up and
started listening to him he's holding
some sheets of paper those sheets have a
diagram that explains what would happen
if they're detained by american
authorities once they reach the u.s
mexico border organizations like the
coalition for humane immigrant rights
now targeting misinformation that often
comes by word of mouth or online
migrants tapping into social media
groups to coordinate travel plans and
head north like this post asking who
wants to sign up to create a caravan
from nicaragua to the u.s do you think
that the large amount of misinformation
that is spread among migrants
is
causing more migrants to go to the us
border right now yes i do think that it
has definitely an impact in moments why
is the misinformation pushing more
migrants to go to the border
because they'll use any kind of big date
they'll use it as an excuse to with with
this may 23rd and then you know last
month it was something else the month
before that was something else there's
always going to be some sort of date
that they can manipulate and say oh
there's going to be this change of
policy
do you think
giving them the right information what's
happening at the border will make
someone maybe rethink the trip and stay
behind absolutely i mean there we've had
many folks that have decided for example
to stay in mexico
and to to accept the refugee status here
and to try to integrate into mexico but
for some they say they have no choice
but to continue jose lopez says he
feared for his life in honduras where
gang members shot him and accused him of
being a police informant
he and his wife believe that would make
their claim for asylum in the u.s much
easier
so he says he read a comment on facebook
saying that the border was open and
there's a lot of messages that are
exchanged where people say come to the
border it's open moments later we reveal
to him title 42 remains in place his
reaction turns to confusion and he
changes the topic
tom for the migrants that are now in
mexico that have entered the country the
first legal step would be to request
refugee status to do that they have to
come to government offices like these
and that can take time now after they
become refugees they still need a
humanitarian visa to stay in mexico
legally and travel within the country
during that time they can work in mexico
they can't go to a shelter but a lot of
them end up sleeping on the street
because there isn't enough resources in
mexico for all of these migrants in the
country now for those of the migrants
for those migrants that have that permit
and make their way to the u.s mexico
border then they have to go to the
border and under title 42 request an
exemption from u.s border officials and
we know that those exemptions are
practically impossible to obtain so
under the current immigration policies
both in mexico and the u.s the migrants
have very very few options
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