On 29 November, the local press reported that a migrant shelter in northern Mexico was closing due to threats from organised crime groups.
Analysis:
Tensions have been on the rise at the border following the implementation of a new bilateral Mexico-US migration agreement allowing US authorities to expel Venezuelan migrants to Mexico under the US federal order Title 42. The agreement has led to a build-up of Venezuelan migrants in Mexican border towns. This latest indication that organised crime groups are capitalising on the vulnerability of migrants will likely heighten scrutiny on what President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government is doing to protect migrants in Mexico.
- The local press reported that the Embajada Migrante shelter in Tijuana (Baja California state) had to close due to threats against migrants and staff. Hugo Castro, the founder of Coalición SOS Migrante, the organisation that runs the shelter, told the local press that the shelter had suffered “threats, extorsion attempts, and criminals even entering at night […]asking migrants for US$200 each to let them cross the border”.
- This comes as the Mexican authorities appear to have upped efforts to detain migrants in recent weeks. Yesterday, the national guard (GN) and agents from the national migration institute (INM) reportedly interrupted a migrant caravan in the city of Tapachula (Chiapas state) made up of some 2,000 migrants planning to travel from Mexico’s southern border to the US.
- On 21 November, the INM announced that it had detained 16,096 migrants between 17 November and 20 November. The majority were from Central and South American countries, including 4,968 Venezuelans.
- The safety of migrants in Mexico has been scrutinised by rights groups following the expansion of Title 42 to include Venezuelans. On 23 November, Alejandro Solalinde, a Catholic priest and migrant rights activist, said that the deaths of at least four Ecuadorean migrants who drowned when attempting to enter Mexico by sea on 21 November, was just one reflection of the “disastrous handling” of migration from the INM and Mexican State.
- Prohibitive US migration policy has led to more migrants seeking asylum in Mexico, with Chiapas alone receiving 64,360 asylum applications between January and October, according to Mexico’s national refugee commission (Comar).
Looking Ahead: Tensions are likely to rise further in the run up to the lifting of Title 42, set for 21 December, with US and Mexican authorities expecting an influx of migrants.