Thread: Mexico steps up migration enforcement, but is it working?

Mexico steps up migration enforcement, but is it working?

David Agren, Special for USA TODAY7 a.m. EDT March 21, 2015


(Photo: Eduardo Verdugo, AP)

SALTILLO, Mexico — Eulio Iglesias, 50, spent eight days traveling through Mexico last year in a bid to cross into the United States before he was stopped at the Texas border and returned to his native El Salvador.

This year, the same attempted journey — an effort to get back to New York City where he worked in hotels and restaurants for 20 years, and still has children — took him twice as long.

That's because Mexican authorities have increased immigration enforcement, forcing him to ride rickety vans and buses down back roads, bribe police to avoid being detained and ply circuitous paths on foot to evade patrols and checkpoints.

"Everyone is out to catch you," he said after arriving at a shelter for migrants here in Saltillo, 190 miles south of Texas.

Eulio Iglesias, a migrant from El Salvador, poses for a photo at a shelter for Central American migrants in Saltillo, Mexico. Iglesias says the trip through Mexico is much more difficult than one year ago due to increased immigration enforcement. (Photo: David Agren for USA TODAY)

For years, Central American migrants have taken risky paths to reach the USA through Mexico. Now, the government has stepped up security on its long-neglected southern border, the only land route to reach the U.S. from Central America. Mexico has increased patrols in southern states and denied more migrants access to a train so dangerous it was dubbed La Bestia (The Beast) for the way it maimed victims who fell onto the tracks.

The move comes in the wake of an international outcry over the humanitarian crisis created by tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children, who crossed Mexico last year to reach the USA.

The Mexican government says the crackdown is driving down migration through Mexico, but critics, many of them migrant shelter operators, charge the actions merely make migration less visible, not necessarily safer.

"Mexican immigration enforcement is a significant factor in the reduction of the number of unaccompanied children and families arriving at the U.S. border," said Maureen Meyer, a senior associate for regional and security policy at Washington Office on Latin America, a research and advocacy organization.

A group of immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, are stopped in Granjeno, Texas, on June 25, 2014. (Photo: Eric Gay, AP)


Last year, Mexican deportation of citizens from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador increased by 34% from 2013, according to WOLA. For fiscal year 2015, which began Oct. 1, the organization predicts a 28% reduction in the U.S. deportation of undocumented children and families from those countries and Mexico.

Many of the migrants trying to flee Central America hope to escape gang violence in nations such as Honduras that are considered the murder capitals of the Western hemisphere.

Others want to reunite with family, who have worked low-paying jobs in the USA and supported households in their home countries with remittances.

"The push factors have not changed — the enforcement has," Meyer said.

The situation in southern Mexico raises questions whether the increased enforcement is truly ebbing the flow. Shelter operators there say migrants are still arriving in similar numbers to last year, but now more are falling victim to criminals because they're seeking ways to evade authorities.

Many Catholic Church-sponsored shelters recently scrapped rules limiting stays to three days because so many migrants were arriving with injures. About 90% of those arriving at such shelters are victims of crime, said Father Alejandro Solalinde, a priest in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Others are beset by unscrupulous smugglers, who started offering services to those unable to take the train, said Tomás González Castillo, a Franciscan Friar operating La 72 shelter in Tabasco state. It's also receiving a similar number of migrants compared to last year, he said.

Once they arrive at the shelters, the migrants can choose to continue their journey to the USA or head home, a move facilitated by Mexican immigration officials. Many decide to continue on toward the U.S. border, though the number staying in Mexico without the proper papers is also increasing, according to José Luis Manzo, director of the Saltillo Migrant House.


Franciscan Friar Tomás González Castillo prepares to celebrate Mass in the state of Veracruz. (Photo: David Agren for USA TODAY)

In the state of Veracruz, Honduran migrant José Daniel Sánchez walked most of the 380 miles from Palenque in Chiapas state to the hamlet of La Patrona — often at night and with little more than "a bottle of water and few tortillas," he said — in an attempt to make it to the USA for a better paying job.
Sánchez tried boarding trains, but authorities chased him away. After successfully hopping on one train, criminals climbed aboard and demanded $100. "I threw myself off," he said, adding he was planning to continue his trek.

Despite the increased enforcement, many migrants remain hopeful they can make it to the USA. Carlos Flores Pinto, coordinator of the border project with Casa Alianza Honduras, a non-profit group that does works with children in Honduras, said he expects the outflow of migrants will only increase after a court temporarily halted the detention of women and children seeking asylum in the USA.

"This has fed the hopes of many mothers, who will return to the road again," he said.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/w...ants/24133683/

Law breakers complaining about being accosted by criminals? That is so close to them demanding we settle their gambling debts! While America slumbers, it becomes an invaded and conquered nation. It is so maddening!