Photos show migrants riding trains through Mexico to U.S.



Photo: ©2013 San Antonio Express-News Photo: ©2013 San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 71 Caption Close Photos show migrants riding trains through Mexico to U.S. 1 / 71 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO - Tens of thousands of Central American migrants have used trains as a method to trek more than 1,200 miles through Mexico to the United States.

But even as the country has focused on the more than 230,000 immigrants detained on the southwest border, few photos have emerged of the brutal and dangerous trip the people have endured to illegally cross into the United States.

However, two San Antonio Express-News photographers recently captured images of the migrants in Arriaga and Tenosique, Mexico.

Explore the photos from Bob Owen and Jerry Lara in the gallery above.

To hear stories of some of the migrants in the southern Mexican town who are staying in makeshift shelters while awaiting an opportunity to board a train, read reporter Aaron Nelsen's dispatch, which was published in Sunday's print edition.

The train is known as La Bestia, or The Beast, so-called for the lives and limbs of passengers it has claimed, Nelsen writes.

"We'll wait to see if the train stops. Or we'll have to seek refuge in Mexico, because we have no other option," said Jaime Miranda, 31, who has stayed in the shelter since missing the last train on July 31.

Nelsen also points out that immigrants detained in Texas have significantly dropped in recent weeks.

"But even as the numbers in South Texas ... dropped from a peak of 300 per day in June to about 100 in recent weeks, the U.S. continues to speed the deportation of Central American families, while pressing Mexico to do more to stem the tide of young migrants," he writes.

kparker@express-news.net

Twitter: @KoltenParker