By Jose Cortes
HUEHUETOCA, Mexico (Reuters) - Several dozen&nbsp;migrants&nbsp;retreated in frustration&nbsp;from&nbsp;train tracks outside Mexico City on Friday, blocked by&nbsp;Mexican&nbsp;officials&nbsp;from&nbsp;hitching rides on&nbsp;cargo&nbsp;wagons in a major new enforcement effort to curb the flow of people headed north.
Thousands of people have reached the northern&nbsp;border&nbsp;in recent days and crossed into the United States, many after taking dangerous journeys on freight&nbsp;trains&nbsp;known as "The Beast."
Mexican&nbsp;railroad operator Ferromex this week suspended 60&nbsp;trains&nbsp;due to the influx of people, and Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) has deployed agents to dissuade people&nbsp;from&nbsp;climbing aboard.
At a railway alongside a trash dump in Huehuetoca, a town north of Mexico City, some 40 INM agents in more than a dozen vans drove alongside the tracks to cut off access to&nbsp;migrants, and sent up a drone to locate others who had scrambled into the surrounding hills.
"They forced us&nbsp;away&nbsp;from&nbsp;the rail," said Jason, a Venezuelan migrant who asked to be identified only by his first name. "We have no other options anymore."
Migrants&nbsp;carrying backpacks and jugs of water made their way through tall grass under the hot sun to retreat on foot to the nearest town.
INM on Friday said it would work with Ferromex, owned by conglomerate Grupo Mexico, to identify strategic points to dissuade&nbsp;migrants&nbsp;from&nbsp;riding the&nbsp;trains, which it said puts lives at risk.
Despite the dangers of clambering aboard car roofs or huddling inside open-air wagons, many&nbsp;migrants&nbsp;say they cannot afford other options, and fear extortion on the highways or being sent by migration agents back to southern Mexico.
Milagros Narvaez, also&nbsp;from&nbsp;Venezuela, said the INM officers told the&nbsp;migrants&nbsp;they had to turn back, and that she was desperate after already struggling for nearly a month to find a way to the northern&nbsp;border.
"It's been an odyssey to be here in Mexico," she said. "We want to take the train to get to the&nbsp;border&nbsp;and cross into the United States... Wherever the train takes us, wherever they will give us asylum."
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Jose Cortes in Huehuetoca; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; Editing by William Mallard)

you might like

Mexican officials push migrants away from border-bound cargo trains