Thousands of migrants are sleeping on the streets of Mexico, waiting to get an appointment for an interview at the U.S. border, only to be deported back to dangerous and impossible living conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the pandemic border measure Title 42 ended in early May, English-language mainstream media has emphasized that fewer people are trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the need to migrate hasn\u2019t changed. Instead, mainstream media are obscuring a harsher reality, in which new policies have turned Mexico into a holding country for refugees and migrants.
Interviews at the border are scheduled by an app, which forces refugees to wait for weeks or months. A new third country rule, in place since Title 42 ended on May 11 this year, means any migrants who have passed through other countries on their way to Mexico \u2014 something that is inevitable for many \u2014 must first seek asylum in those countries or otherwise be deported upon their arrival to the U.S. Under a new agreement, Mexico is now accepting Nicaraguans, Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans that the U.S. has deported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobody knows exactly how many refugees and migrants are sleeping on Mexico\u2019s streets, because there is no registry and there are no systems in place to look after migrants or provide them with information.
Migrants, mostly from Haiti, line up to apply for humanitarian asylum, in front of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance, in Mexico City, Mexico, on May 16, 2023.
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\u201cBut that doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d Valmont Luc Son, a Haitian refugee, told me as we sat in the street where he is staying, a few blocks from the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) in downtown Mexico City. He hadn\u2019t heard about the third country rule, and I was explaining it to him as I interviewed him.
\u201cI am fleeing an impossible situation \u2014 so much violence and corrupt politicians. We have to come through other countries to get to the border. I am sure it will be fine, they will have to let me in. What other options do we have? Where are we supposed to go if we can\u2019t stay here and we can\u2019t be in Haiti and we get rejected when we go to the U.S.?\u201d he asked, frustrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Staying in Mexico City
Because the app for border interviews, called CBP One, is only accessible from Mexico City and north of there, Mexico City has now joined the northern border cities as a waiting place. The country is functioning as a staggered bottleneck. Some 15,000 migrants have been waiting for months \u2014 taking shelter from the rain under trees and trucks \u2014 in Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, for transit visas to pass through Mexico. Then they wait in Mexico City to be assigned a port somewhere along the border for an interview with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers. At the end of May, COMAR announced that for the first time ever, it received more asylum requests in its Mexico City offices than in Tapachula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a joint statement released in June, more than 40 Mexican activist and NGO groups wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. government has implemented a series of political agreements with Mexico and Central American countries, disguised as shared responsibility, in order to contain migration, but with no concern that they are externalizing their borders.\u2026 They are putting people at risk, not just of being deported to the situations they were fleeing, but also exposing them to the dangers of the journey. In Mexico, the government has left the responsibility of providing orientation and attention \u2026 to civil society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shelters in Mexico City, working together in a \u201cnetwork of solidarity,\u201d have been overflowing for eight months. Samantha Hern\u00e1ndez Cer\u00f3n, a spokesperson for CAFEMIN shelters, told Truthout the shelters are working at \u201cup to 900 percent of our capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt our peak, (CAFEMIN) had 1,000 people a night, and in this shelter (one of three run by CAFEMIN, located in the center-north of Mexico City) where we have the capacity for 80 people, we currently have 250,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shelters depend on donations and fundraising to provide migrants with beds, food and workshops on how to use the new CBP app. \u201cWe are focused on resolving urgent problems, and don\u2019t have time to deeply analyze the situation, or consider the long-term logistic, economic and operative challenges,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said, arguing that such issues can only be addressed through collective organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shelters to the north, in states like Jalisco, Quer\u00e9taro and San Luis Potos\u00ed, are also well beyond capacity. Monterrey, where few refugees went in the past, is now seeing 300-400 arriving at the main bus terminal daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWithout a doubt, there are more migrants now, and there is greater need. There\u2019s a bottleneck here (in Tijuana), a situation of serious precariousness,\u201d said Graciela Zamudio, the founding lawyer of Alma Migrante, an organization that provides migrants with advice and legal workshops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March this year, Mexico City authorities set up a shelter in Tlahuac, in the far south of the city. In mid-May, just after Title 42 ended, they sent the thousands of people there to other cities without telling them where they were going until a few hours beforehand. The shelter-camp was closed, then reopened four days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I visited it in late June, there were around 200 people there. I wasn\u2019t allowed inside, with one government worker telling me that her supervisor didn\u2019t want anyone to see the dining area, as it wasn\u2019t in good condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is clear that the Mexican government wants migrants out of sight. It is sending deportees to far-away cities like Tabasco and Tapachula, and has no formal policy regarding what visa deportees will receive, or how their immediate needs for housing and health will be met.
Precarious Living and Traveling Conditions
Migrants sleeping on the streets near the COMAR in Mexico City protested in May, demanding a response to their asylum requests, and holding placards that read, \u201cWe ask for dignified treatment, respect, and protection.\u201d Such living conditions make them more prone to physical and mental health problems, to being attacked, extorted, raped or verbally abused. Many of these migrants go days without eating, and have no access to toilets or showers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t stay in Mexico because there aren\u2019t any facilities for migrants. I don\u2019t have shelter, food, nothing. I can\u2019t work. Some people come by here needing workers, but they ask for a lot of documents,\u201d Luc Son said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human rights violations are systemic in Mexico, and people who are marginalized, unseen and unsupported are the most vulnerable. There are almost a million unpaid forced workers here, and more than 100,000 registered forced disappearances. As just one example, in May, 50 migrants traveling by bus were kidnapped in San Luis Potos\u00ed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daniel \u00c1lvarez fled Honduras with his family after being robbed numerous times where he lived, moving to a new suburb, and being continuously robbed there as well. But fleeing through Mexico, he described being extorted by immigration authorities on five separate occasions for $100 to $500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Honduran migrant Daniel \u00c1lvarez sits in the CAFEMIN shelter in Mexico City.
Honduran migrant Daniel \u00c1lvarez sits in the CAFEMIN shelter in Mexico City.
\u201cThey asked for money in exchange for letting us travel on buses, or so they wouldn\u2019t assault my family. They said they would return us to Tapachula. We would go without food so that our kids could eat and because we were waiting to see how much they would charge us at the next stop,\u201d he told Truthout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is common for organized criminals to kidnap migrants in order to demand ransoms from their families. Reporting of these crimes and violence tends to be \u201can exception \u2026 but now, even those people who are looked after by civil society, in shelters, are being kidnapped,\u201d said Zamudio. Migrants often don\u2019t report crimes because they are afraid of authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merlin Musset, from Venezuela, is waiting in Mexico City in a CAFEMIN shelter with her three children and brother for their border appointment. She was robbed when she first entered Mexico, and has heard of fellow migrants being kidnapped. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to decide to stay here or to continue, because either way, we\u2019re in danger \u2026 we need safety, more security,\u201d she said.
Regarding the CBP One app, people don\u2019t know if they will be able to enter the U.S., and \u201cthat uncertainty has led to \u2026 things like kidnapping. It isn\u2019t new, but it has been exacerbated. We are getting more reports of such incidents than we typically do,\u201d Zamudio said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the majority of cases, people don\u2019t get appointments through the app, and it isn\u2019t clear why. There\u2019s also a lack of communication from the state about services migrants can access. They are uncertain about where they are welcome. Their uncertainty is full of fear; fear of being deported, of being attacked or abused,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when migrants do get work, they face discrimination and danger. Central Americans are 45 percent more likely to die of a work-related accident or illness in Mexico, because migrants more often do the dangerous or difficult jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Mexico, \u201cthey take advantage of you because you\u2019re a migrant, they want to pay less and get you to work more. I went for a construction job in Veracruz, and they said they could give me 100 pesos (six dollars) a day, for 11 hours a day. We don\u2019t have rights here,\u201d said \u00c1lvarez.
As of May 12, a day after Title 42 ended, the White House announced that Mexico would be accepting deported Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Mexico\u2019s former migration head, Tonatiuh Guill\u00e9n, acknowledged that, \u201cThe priority is no longer human rights, development, and protection \u2026 but because of pressure from the United States, contention, detention, and expulsions are favored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hence, since May, Mexico has been carrying out \u201con the fly\u201d deportations against migrants at its southern border. There is no due process, and international norms are violated as refugees are forced back to Guatemala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf Mexico is going to receive deported migrants, it should treat that responsibility seriously and attend to them properly. But ultimately, the agreement is illegal and should be annulled immediately,\u201d Zamudio said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut Mexico needs to be on good terms with the U.S., so it is managing migration in a palliative way, and economically, it has other priorities. If Mexico valued migrants, it would treat them like the heroes they are,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n