Mexican authorities rescue large group of immigrants kidnapped near US border

More than 30 immigrants who were kidnapped in northern Mexico not far from the United States border have been located and rescued, according to the Mexican government.

The mass kidnapping of 32 immigrants, the largest since last May, happened in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas on Saturday, when organized crime syndicates took control of a bus that had been transporting immigrants from Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Venezuela, and Mexico toward the border.

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Mexican authorities announced Wednesday that a wide-scale police and military search had a positive outcome.

“Thanks to the coordinated effort of the government of Tamaulipas, the FGE, Sedena, National Guard and the SSPYC, the 31 migrants who were kidnapped on December 30 in 2023 were rescued,” said Jesus Ramirez, spokesman for Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in a post to X. “They are already in the hands of the authorities and are undergoing the corresponding medical examination.”

The immigrants had boarded a bus in Monterrey in neighboring state Nuevo Leon and had been headed to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Five vehicles intercepted the bus and took the passengers captive. Nine children, including a baby, were among those kidnapped, Tamaulipas Gov. Americo Villareal said.

Kidnappings of immigrants headed to the U.S. are common in Mexico as cartels look to extort them by holding them ransom until friends or family can pay for their release, though they often involve one or several people, not dozens.

Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Mexico’s security secretary, said Wednesday that the size of this latest kidnapping was not the norm.

“This type of event occurred with one, two, three migrants,” Rodríguez said, “but this number in this area is atypical.”

Last May, a group of nearly 50 immigrants was kidnapped in central Mexico and rescued after the government mobilized more than 650 police officers and soldiers.

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Lopez Obrador said Wednesday that the country has seen initial success in lowering the number of immigrant kidnappings nationwide.

However, the New York Times reported Wednesday that immigrant kidnappings are “becoming a reliable revenue stream for criminal groups active in the border region, including the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel.”