Hundreds of displaced Mexican families are camping inside Chamizal Park in Juarez

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- ABC-7 has learned of a large campsite in Juarez made up of hundreds of migrants, displaced from their homes and fleeing violence in their homes states.

That group of people is camped out on the Juarez side of Chamizal Park.

“They are displaced,” said Jocelyn Quiñonez, who is with a group of Chihuahua State University students who volunteer to tutor many of the children inside this campsite.

No one from the campsite would agree to do an interview, but Quiñonez explained the families not only live in extreme poverty, they also live in extreme fear of what they fled.

 “All the people who are here are risking their lives, they they can’t do interviews, they can’t show their faces,” Quiñonez said.

She noted they fled places like Zacatecas, Michoacan, Durango and Guerrero hoping to gain asylum in the U.S.

Quiñonez indicated she and her fellow students tutor more than 100 children. She estimates the group fluctuates between 150 to 200 families.

Quiñonez explained why they fled: “They are at work and they have to evacuate fearing stray bullets. They are displaced because of quotas. That’s why they left, because the quotas are so high that they are simply working to pay the quotas to criminals.”

And Quiñonesz added, families either pay the quota or pay with their lives.
What’s worse, Quiñonez said the displaced families fear that same criminal element may have contacts in Juarez and could be communicating with the same criminal element they fled.

“They have no security, neither the children, the adolescents, nor the parents,” observed Quiñonez.

Those families live exposed to the elements and rely on donations of blanket and jackets. Some families have been waiting at the Chamizal Park on the Juarez side for more than two months, hoping they can one day gain asylum.