Professional clown and Honduran migrant Jorge Ruiz Williams was among
the hundreds of Central American migrants trying to cross into the
United States illegally through Mexico on board the infamous freight
train known as The Beast (La Bestia).
Williams had been working as a clown for the last eight months back home, but decided to leave everything and try to pursue the "American dream."
He brought along his clown costume to make some money on the way, and said officers have been lenient with him because he makes people laugh.
Earlier this week, he waited in the woods outside the southern Mexican city of Arriaga, along with a dozen fellow migrants, who later boarded La Bestia while it was moving.
But dozens of Mexican federal police and immigration agents boarded at a remote, unscheduled stop and hauled off all but a handful of the most fleet-footed migrants, said Williams, 20, who avoided capture.
Mexico has started to crack down on migrants who try to jump on the freight train.
The roundups follow US requests for help from Mexico, as well as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, earlier this summer when the number of unaccompanied minors turning themselves into the US Border Patrol reached what President Barack Obama called an "urgent humanitarian crisis."
Some of the migrants caught this week tried to hide in the woods, and others, like Williams, swung back on board to make it to Ixtepec, the next stop.
Williams had been working as a clown for the last eight months back home, but decided to leave everything and try to pursue the "American dream."
He brought along his clown costume to make some money on the way, and said officers have been lenient with him because he makes people laugh.
Earlier this week, he waited in the woods outside the southern Mexican city of Arriaga, along with a dozen fellow migrants, who later boarded La Bestia while it was moving.
But dozens of Mexican federal police and immigration agents boarded at a remote, unscheduled stop and hauled off all but a handful of the most fleet-footed migrants, said Williams, 20, who avoided capture.
Mexico has started to crack down on migrants who try to jump on the freight train.
The roundups follow US requests for help from Mexico, as well as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, earlier this summer when the number of unaccompanied minors turning themselves into the US Border Patrol reached what President Barack Obama called an "urgent humanitarian crisis."
Some of the migrants caught this week tried to hide in the woods, and others, like Williams, swung back on board to make it to Ixtepec, the next stop.
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