MEXICO CITY.- The head of the immigration agency Mexico ordered the suspension of transfers and returns of migrants in an irregular situation, due to lack of money in the National Institute of Migrationjust in a year in which records have been broken in the flow of displacements to the US.
This is indicated in a circular signed on December 1 by Francisco Garduño, the head of Immigration. According to the document, the Ministry of Finance suspended payments in the month of November due to a series of year-end adjustments. Due to that “and the lack of liquidity to cover the commitments” made, Garduño ordered the suspension of several activities of his department.
Among them, the air services for “assisted returns” of migrants and “land transportation for the transfer of irregular migrants” stand out.
The circular indicates that the measures would come into force on December 1. It does not mention an end date but when referring to “specific provisions for the closing of the 2023 budget year” it could be understood that they end on December 31.
The stoppage of these two activities means that migrants will not be deported to their countries of origin and that foreigners would not be transferred from one point in Mexico to another. It is common for Mexican authorities to move migrants from the border with the United States to the interior or south of the country to decongest the points where more people accumulate.
From the NGO sector they have expressed concern, since they estimate that the border of Mexico with Guatemala, particularly the city of Tapachula, could become chaos due to the arrival of thousands of migrants who will be stranded at that point or continue transiting through the country. northward.
Venezuelan migrants have indicated that they will not stop until they reach the United States, even though they admit the difficulty of the journey.
The other measures have to do with the movement of immigration agents, who must return to the offices to which they are assigned, and with the temporary suspension of certain payments to immigration agency officials or their appointments for confidence checks.
“With the sharp cut in the INM budget during the last month of the year, it is likely that Mexico will depend more on the National Guard to manage migration, a mission for which they are barely prepared,” said Adam Isacson, analyst. of the NGO Washington Office for Latin American Affairs, better known by its acronym in English, WOLA.
Record of migrants
The order from the head of the INM, which was not publicly disclosed, comes when the region is about to close a record year in the flow of migrants heading to the United States.
From January to October of this year, Mexican authorities have intercepted almost 590,000 migrants in an irregular situation in the country, a strong increase if we compare that number with the 440,000 for all of last year or the less than 310,000 in 2021.
However, this year the number of migrants that Mexico returned to their countries dropped drastically. According to federal government statistics, there are 51,000 from January to October compared to almost 122,000 throughout last year and more than 130,000 in 2021.
Returns fell sharply starting in April, just after the fire at the end of March at the immigration detention center in the border Ciudad Juárez where 40 people died, most of them suffocated, and 27 were injured.
The event put the immigration agency in check, which temporarily closed many of its facilities and saw eight of its officials placed under criminal proceedings. Six of them are accused of murder. Garduño and another manager are on trial for unlawful exercise of their duty and failing to protect people in their custody, but both remain in their positions.
Returns of migrants increased in October, just after the Mexican government reactivated the returns of nationals from several countries such as Cubans and Venezuelans.
Isacson considered that the INM’s lack of liquidity could lead to a “sharp decrease” in the interception of migrants in Mexico, which would imply that it would be easier to reach the US border. However, he added that several Central American countries saw a decrease in the movement of foreigners in November, so the trend is expected to continue downwards this month.
So far this year, there has also been a record in the numbers of asylum applications in Mexico. From January to November, almost 137,000 were registered. The year in which the most had been registered was 2021 and they did not exceed 130,000.
Source: With information from AP
