Migrant Families at U.S.-Mexico Border Deported by Surprise

When 149 migrants were escorted onto a bridge by U.S. Border Patrol agents, they had no idea where they were being taken. Many collapsed, crying, when they learned they were back in Mexico.

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — They came in groups of 30, children dangling from adults’ arms, escorted on Thursday afternoon by United States Border Patrol agents across the Paso del Norte bridge until they reached the halfway point. Then, they were handed off to Mexican authorities.

“Where are we?” one father asked a journalist with The New York Times.

“Ciudad Juárez,” came the reply.

The father, who hadn’t been told by U.S. officials where he and the rest of the group of migrants were being taken, looked bewildered.

“Mexico,” the journalist clarified.

Faces contorted from confusion to anguish. Many of the parents started sobbing, tears of frustration falling on the children they cradled.

two powerful hurricanes slammed into Honduras within as many weeks, leaving him jobless and homeless in November.

“They deceived us because in the United States they never told us that they were going to deport us,” Mr. Bautista said.

Ms. Peraza, below, with her children.

Mexican officials ushered the migrants off the bridge and into their offices, where they were registered and told they’d be placed in shelters until deported back home.

But the shelters were for those whose limits of despair had been reached. Among the crowd of migrants, there were still the hopeful, those who had not run out of money or the determination to try to cross again. Instead of filling out the government forms, they slipped out of the chaotic offices onto the streets of Juárez.

A yellow sports car appeared out of nowhere, and a family was ushered into the back seat. They had called their coyote, or human smuggler, to pick them up right at the government offices. Once everyone packed into the car — as flashy as the coyotes are brazen — the family sped off, to attempt the perilous crossing once again.

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