EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Honduras and El Salvador plan to open consulates in the Mexican border city of Juarez to serve thousands of their citizens returned to Mexico under the United States’ Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program.
Alden Rivera Montes, the Honduran ambassador to Mexico, has informed Juarez authorities his government is looking for a building for a new consulate where five permanent staff members will provide protection services and documents for its citizens.
Rivera estimates that more then 2,500 Hondurans who presented themselves at El Paso ports of entry were returned to Juarez to await the outcome of asylum petitions in the United States.
Those Honduran migrants are either staying in shelters because they have run out of money or are living on their own with resources provided by relatives in the United States or by working temporary jobs in Juarez, Rivera told Juarez Mayor Armando Cabada during a meeting, the mayor’s office said.
Rivera also informed Juarez authorities that last month he assigned a staff member to provide assistance to Honduran nationals staying at Casa del Migrante shelter in Juarez. The migrants often come to Juarez without identity documents — either because they were stolen along the way or confiscated by some authority — so the new consulate will issue them nationality certificates so they can remotely access government services or bank accounts.
Last month, the government of El Salvador announced the opening of a consulate in Juarez to serve several hundred Salvadorans known to remain in the city. The consulate’s official opening has been delayed, though a new consul is already in the city, Juarez officials said on Monday.
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