2023-09-28 11:40:34
In August, the United States recorded the highest number of migrant arrests on the border with Mexico so far this year: 232,972 people. The figure represents a 27% increase over the 183,494 apprehensions in July, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). And the way things are going in September, the record numbers won’t slow down. For this reason, over the weekend the US and Mexico reached a 15-point agreement to stop the enormous migratory flow.
This month, the number of border crossings has again reached the numbers before the expiration of Title 42 in May of this year, with 8,000 apprehensions in one day. This after daily arrests had dropped drastically to 3,500 per day after the end of Title 42.
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The new agreement was agreed upon by the National Migration Institute (INM) of Mexico, the railway company Ferromex and the United States Border Patrol (CBP), after a meeting held in Ciudad Juárez.
A group of migrants travels on the train known as “La Bestia” on September 16, 2023 in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. (EFE/ Luis Torres).
According to this agreement, which seeks to “depressurize” the border, Mexico has committed to toughening measures to prevent the passage of undocumented migrants through its territory using freight trains.
The signed document says that at this point the aim is to “prevent migrants from risking their lives when using this means of transportation (train) with the intention of reaching the border.”
The INM reported that it will locate, together with Ferromex, the strategic points of the railway to carry out “the rescue and deterrence” of migrants, in coordination with the army, the National Guard and the police.
The National Migration Institute of Mexico
He said that 189,000 migrants have been detained in September alone, “a daily average of 9,000.”
There is also Mexico’s commitment to return migrants who are rejected on US soil to their countries of origin.
In this way, the Border Patrol will deliver the migrants to Mexico through the International Bridge that separates Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas. Then, Mexico will have to effectively return the migrants to their countries, after “carrying out the arrangements with the governments of Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia and Cuba so that they receive their compatriots,” according to a statement from the INM.
In addition to sending them to their countries of origin, Mexico has pledged to take steps to discourage migrants from making the trip across the continent to seek asylum in the United States.
United States Border Patrol agents process migrants who have been camping between the two fences on the southern border with Mexico in San Diego, California, on September 25, 2023. (EFE/EPA/ALLISON DINNER).
/ ALLISON DINNER
Besides…
The main measures of the 15-point agreement
1. Deport migrants to their countries of origin by land and air.
2. Allow CBP to expel migrants through the Ciudad Juárez international bridge, which connects to El Paso.
3. Carry out negotiations with the Governments of Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia and Cuba for the reception of their deported citizens.
4. Carrying out interventions on railways and roads.
5. Establish checkpoints along the Ferromex railway route.
6. Provide the CBP El Paso Sector with a daily report on the number of migrants on the train system.
7. Establish shelters at the gates of Ciudad Juárez to serve migrants, especially children and adolescents.
El Paso is on the limit
As explained Univisionbefore the current wave of migrants registered starting in August, all undocumented immigrants subject to deportation remained detained while their processes took place “and only a few achieved asylum.”
Now, “after the surge, some are being released with shackles due to lack of space in jails and detention centers,” Alex Gálvez, an immigration lawyer who practices in Los Angeles, California, told Univision.
A woman sits in a makeshift tent sheltering from the sun as she waits for Border Patrol at the U.S. southern border with Mexico in San Diego. (EFE/EPA/ALLISON DINNER).
The Department of Homeland Security
The United States did not give a clear explanation for what generated the latest migration surge, but cited poor economies, authoritarian regimes and the climate crisis as forces driving migration.
On Saturday, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said at a press conference that the city does not have enough resources to address the increase in migrants and is at “a breaking point.”
Some 6,500 immigrants are detained in El Paso alone, which “has a limited amount of resources,” the mayor said.
On Friday, the Foreign Minister of Mexico, Alicia Bárcena, acknowledged in New York that her country is “overwhelmed” by the migratory flow.
For this reason, he continued, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador seeks to meet in November with his American counterpart Joe Biden to address the immigration problem.
Since last May, you have seen the end of Title 42,
Migrants who cross illegally into the United States risk being expelled, deported, or banned from entering again for a period of five years, in addition to being criminally prosecuted for repeat offenses.
The Ferromex company announced last Tuesday the suspension of the activity of 60 freight trains, out of a total fleet of 200 daily, due to the flow of thousands of migrants who use these vehicles to reach the border.
On the part of the United States, the Department of Homeland Security reported that it will send at least 800 more soldiers to the border, where 2,500 members of the National Guard are already stationed.
Dead and missing migrants in America. (AFP).
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