José Díaz Briseño / Reform Agency
Wednesday, February 08, 2023 | 23:34
Washington.- The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is secretly negotiating an agreement with the administration of President Joe Biden so that the United States can carry out massive deportations of migrants from third countries to Mexico starting in May, revealed The Washington Post.
Citing unidentified US government sources, the newspaper assures that the mass deportations would replace the current expulsions of migrants that began with the Covid-19 pandemic, but would have harsher legal consequences and are contrary to Mexican immigration laws.
“(The) agreement with Mexico could allow US authorities to carry out large-scale deportations of non-Mexicans across the border for the first time, according to four current and former US officials familiar with the discussions,” the Washington Post reported.
“Biden officials are turning to a tougher approach that would use some measures long sought by the hardliners around the border. Mexico is the lynchpin of the plan.”
Since March 2020 with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, former President Donald Trump initiated a policy of summary expulsions of migrants to Mexico under the so-called Title 42 of the Health Services Law, but said policy is about to be expire when the emergency formally ends in May.
In its report, the Washington Post assures that the biggest obstacle facing the plan for the massive deportation of migrants from third countries to Mexico are obligations in the Mexican Immigration Law that prohibit it, but points out that the Government of López Obrador is open to the agreement.
“The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has shown a broad willingness to help Washington with border control measures, accommodations that have gained influence over other aspects of US-Mexico relations,” says the US newspaper in its article posted tonight.
In addition to accepting in 2018 a return program for non-Mexican asylum seekers known as “Stay in Mexico”, the Government of López Obrador also agreed in 2020 to receive migrants expelled under Title 42 with the Covid-19 pandemic, pleasing so to the Trump Administration.
Under US regulations, third-country migrants deported to Mexico would face more severe repercussions than under simple Title 42 removals, as deportation includes potential criminal consequences and years of bans on entry to the US.
In its note this Wednesday, the US newspaper confirms that Mexican officials are seeking to maintain a certain independence over the nationalities that would allow them to be deported to Mexico as well as seeking avenues for legal migration to the US, but so far this has not been achieved.
