The United States faces an unprecedented exodus from displaced people for economic reasons, as well as for asylum seekers, who have forced their government to take measures that turned Mexico into a waiting room for migrants seeking international protection.
During the last two years, Mexican cities located on the southern and northern borders of Mexico, as well as on the irregular migration routes to the north, have been subjected to strong pressure, due to the escalation in the arrival of foreign migrants, both from the south of the country and those returned from the United States.
In Tapachula, Chiapas, and cities on the northern border, tens of thousands of foreigners who intend to seek refuge in the United States are stranded.
According to figures from the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), since December, new migrant camps have sprung up in Matamoros, Reynosa and Tapachula.
Because it is about irregular migration, there are no precise figures, but it is estimated that there are currently around 6,000 foreign migrants in Tapachula alone; 15,000 in Baja California; 20,000 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and 3,000 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
The statistics of the Mexican Commission for Aid to Refugees (Comar) show the escalation in the arrival of foreign migrants to Mexico looking to reach the border with the United States. From 2014 to 2019, the number of foreigners who sought protection in Mexico doubled year after year. The number of applicants went from 1,296 in 2014 to 70,314 in 2019. That means an increase of 5,325%.
In 2020, due to the pandemic, the number dropped to 40,914, but in 2021 it reached 129,791 and in 2022, 118,478.
The authorities estimate that in 2023 the number of applicants will be similar to last year.
That avalanche of asylum seekers evidently saturated the services of the Comar.
The United States sends 81,350 people to Mexico through the MPP
On January 25, 2019, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, launched the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), better known as “Stay in Mexico” (for asylum seekers)
Through this instrument, the immediate expulsion to Mexican territory of people from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras who crossed the border without authorization to request asylum is given.
Subsequently, in October 2022, Mexico admitted that citizens of Venezuela could be sent to its territory and on January 5, 2023, it also allowed citizens of Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti, with which up to 30,000 per month will be received from those three nationalities.
According to the second report “Between waiting and settling: labor and residential insertion of immigrants and displaced persons in border cities in northern Mexico” published by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Colef), the MPP program ended up being defined in two stages: MPP 1 began in 2019 and concluded with an Executive Order in February 2021, while MPP 2 began with its reactivation by order of a federal judge, ratified by the Supreme Court of Justice in December 2021 and ended in August of 2022.
Figures from Trac Immigration indicate that between February 2019 and August 2022, 81,350 people were returned to Mexico through the MPP. An undetermined number are repeat offenders.
The problem is that, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the asylum seekers returned to Mexico they run the risk of being kidnapped, extorted and raped; They are denied access to essential services such as health care and education, and their right to seek asylum in the United States is systematically violated.
The program also exacerbates existing deficiencies in the United States immigration courts, such as lack of access to legal aid, obstacles to legal representation, lack of transparency in immigration procedures, and limited legal protections for individuals who apply for asylum.
During visits in March 2022 to Mexican border cities with Texas, aid workers told WOLA that members of organized crime groups wait near border bridges every day, monitoring expelled migrants in order to kidnap them.
More than 2.5 million people have been returned under title 42
According to HRW reports, that number includes tens of thousands of children and people with disabilities and chronic health conditions.
Meanwhile, WOLA reports that, since it was first imposed, the Trump and Biden administrations have used Title 42 some 2.5 million times to expel migrants.
The same non-governmental organization claims that the program has also led to more than 13,000 crimes against migrants who have been prevented from entering the United States or expelled to Mexico during the Biden administration, according to reports from human rights organizations that it cites.
Despite continuing to reject asylum seekers, the Biden government has implemented exceptions both to expulsions under Title 42 and to the MPP program through humanitarian permits (parole), which are processed through the intermediation of humanitarian organizations, or Well, from immigration attorneys, thousands of people have crossed at ports of entry. Most have reunited with their families to continue their asylum cases in immigration courts within the United States.
Between February and August 2021, nearly 13,000 people were readmitted to the United States through the CONECTA system, which represents just under half of the cases pending under MPP.
According to figures from the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during the second phase of the MPP program, from December 2021 to June 2022, a total of 9,653 people entered this mechanism, of which more than 35% (3,411) left it for expressing well-founded fears of being sent to Mexico.
