Families are reunited by Guanajuato and USA

Guanajuato is a leader in Mexico for actions that help migrants and their families Families are reunited through the program “Silver Miners” Da

Guanajuato is a leader in Mexico for actions that help migrants and their families

Families are reunited through the program “Silver Miners”

Da click en el link al final de la nota para leer en español:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Llamada-MasGto-OK-small-5.jpg

Guanajuato/Gto News

The government of Guanajuato, through the Secretary of Migrant and International Affairs, provides support and management of the humanitarian VISA to older adults who seek to reunite with their children who, due to geographical and migratory circumstances, have not seen each other for more than 10 years.

Susana Guerra Vallejo, head of the agency, said that this is through the “Mineros de Plata” program, which supports people between 60 and 85 years old to reunite with their relatives.

“Guanajuato is a leader in actions in favor of migrants. This program was created in Guanajuato and is now replicated in more than 10 states in the country. Each State carries it out under a different name, but the objective is the same, to reunify migrant families”, said Guerra.

She explained that in a second stage, older adults who have been granted a visa to the United States are accompanied to spend 30 days with their relatives in the US.

She said that the Covid 19 pandemic caused the program to be paused and in 2022 it was reactivated by securing appointments at the American embassy for 84 beneficiaries.

Guerra reported that at the end of September a group of 20 older adults from the municipalities of:

Abasolo, Guanajuato, León and San Luis de la Paz left Guanajuato to reunite with their migrant daughters and sons who live in Los Angeles, California.

Later, in the beginning of October, a contingent of 41 people from San Miguel de Allende went to Dallas, Texas. This is the largest group to join this program so far in 2023.

“The entire Silver Miners program, the support, accompaniment, filling out the forms and formats for the VISAS, everything it entails is completely free. The children of older adults are responsible for paying the cost of the VISA and plane tickets for their parents”, said the State Official.

Guerra Vallejo added that as for the State government, it supports ground transportation from the municipality of origin and they are taken directly to the headquarters of the United States embassy in our country, in Mexico City or in the Consulate in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

If they have to spend the night in one of those cities, the Secretary absorbs the cost of lodging to show up early the next day to complete the procedures to obtain that immigration document and then return to Guanajuato.

The head of the SMEI invited the Guanajuato migrant community living abroad, their families in our State and the general public to come and learn the details of this and all of our programs.