The Number of Migrants at the Border Drops as Mexico Helps U.S.
The Number of Migrants at the Border Drops as Mexico Helps U.S.
Shelters for migrants with a large number of vacant beds. places serving soup where there is food left over. Soldiers manning checkpoints at junctions where migrant families used to beg for spare coins in the past.
In Ciudad Juárez and in other Mexican cities along the border, the story is essentially the same: despite the fact that elected officials and immigration advocates had warned that the number of migrants trying to enter the United States would skyrocket, the number of migrants has plummeted following the expiration in May of a border restriction that was put in place during the pandemic.
The extraordinary displays of relative quiet are a direct result of the flurry of efforts that the Biden administration has taken, including as establishing higher fines for unlawful border crossings, in an effort to reverse a massive increase in the number of people seeking to reach the United States.
However, this is also a consequence of the stringent measures that Mexico has taken, including sending migrants to locations deep into the interior of the nation, in an effort to deter migrants from congregating around the border.
Mexico’s strategy represents the country’s development as an enforcer of United States migration policies. Acting frequently in concert, but also adopting its own actions to control the border, as its northern cities have struggled to house and feed huge numbers of migrants, Mexico’s strategy reflects the country’s rise as an enforcer of United States migration laws. After a tragic fire in March at a migrant detention centre in Juárez, which left hundreds of people dead, the severe circumstances have grabbed the attention of people all over the world.
A tent encampment that had been built up in Juárez following the horrific fire was recently destroyed by Mexican migration officials, providing another evidence that pressure is beginning to ease on border communities.
After numerous migrants arranged appointments with United States Customs and Border Protection agents at ports of entry using a smartphone app developed this year, the site, which initially had 240 individuals when it began in May, had only 80 people this month.
Shelters in the city, according to Cristina Coronado, who runs a soup meal for migrants in the Roman Catholic cathedral in downtown Juárez, are “semi-empty” as a result of migrants being able to obtain appointments over the border or being transported by Mexican police to other areas of the nation.
However, Ms. Coronado and other activists for migrants have cautioned that the calm may only be temporary since hundreds of migrants, most of whom are from Venezuela, Haiti, and Central America, continue to flood into southern Mexico from Guatemala with the intention of travelling farther north. These migrants enter Mexico through Guatemala.
“As long as the conditions in the countries of origin don’t change, and as long as people continue to leave, there is going to come a point where we are going to see the borders saturated again,” said Alejandra Macas Delgadillo, director of Asylum Access Mexico, an organisation that helps asylum seekers. “We are going to see a point where we are going to see the borders saturated again.”
It is unknown for how long the policies of the United States and Mexico will work together to reduce the number of people crossing the border, she said, but one thing is certain: “I don’t think it’s going to be permanent.”
Since the public health policy known as Title 42, which prevented the majority of undocumented persons from entering the nation, was no longer in effect, the authorities in the United States have reported a significant decrease in the number of arrests of migrants for illegally crossing the border.
A greater number of migrants were taken into custody along certain sections of the border by the end of June; nonetheless, this number was still far fewer than it was in the spring. Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector, which has historically been one of the busiest, saw 654 persons trying to enter the United States illegally on June 29. This number is far lower than the over 2,000 people a day they were seeing in early May.
The recent rollout of new policies by the Biden administration includes tougher punishments, including as a five-year entry ban into the United States for migrants who have been caught many times attempting to enter the country illegally, as well as enhancements to an app that are supposed to simplify the process of requesting asylum.But Mexico’s government, which had previously agreed to accept non-Mexican migrants deported from the United States before the limitation imposed during the epidemic era expired, has also taken efforts leading to fewer people crossing the border. These steps include closing lanes of travel along the border that are used by illegal immigrants.
In addition to transporting people by bus and aeroplane to other regions of Mexico, such as Chiapas, which is the southernmost state in the nation, the Mexican government has also erected bureaucratic roadblocks in the path of migrants who are attempting to reach the United States border.
