Over the past few years, Central Americans have made up most of the illegal-alien apprehensions on American and Mexican soil, and the main nationalities of those staying in Mexican migrant shelters at the border.
However, an official in Nuevo Laredo, the Mexican city opposite El Paso, Texas, says the majority of migrant youth there are now Mexicans.
Anwar Kassim Teran, the local director of Mexico's National System for Integral Family Development (DIF), said the Mexican minors in Nuevo Laredo's Border Youth Care Center (CAMEF) are between 15-17 years old, mostly from states in the country's south, and left home primarily to seek jobs.
He said that in the CAMEF shelter, "We have 33 underage boys, we have six families, of the 33 boys, 30 are Mexican nationals from the states of Guerrero, Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Zacatecas, we have three from Ecuador, Guatemala, and El Salvador." Kassim Teran said those in family units are all foreigners.
The Mexican youths are promptly returned home to their families.
This is consistent with a broader trend along the border; as the Associated Press reported last month, "Mexico resumed its position in August as the top-sending county of people who cross the border illegally or are stopped at official crossings, surpassing Honduras, followed by Guatemala and El Salvador."