Mexico City. The detention of foreign migrants in Mexican territory has increased five times in the last decade, going from 88,000 in 2012 to 450,000 in 2022, due to the persecution policy that began during the six-year term of Enrique Peña Nieto, which has not changed in practice. due to the pressure exerted by the United States on the Mexican government, two specialists from the Colegio de la Frontera Norte agreed.
Figures from the Migration Policy Unit of the Ministry of the Interior show that, in 10 years, detentions of undocumented immigrants have risen because the Mexican government has agreed to receive returning migrants so that they can wait in our territory for a possible hearing for asylum in the United States. United, but under the policy of imprisoning those who do not have documents to start the procedures from our country.
A review of the historical record of immigration detentions of the Mexican government shows that 10 years ago the figure did not reach 90,000 people in the quarters of the National Institute of Migration (INM), but it increased 411 percent in 2022, having a record of 450 thousand migrants in custody.
“There has been a growth in new flows of people in mobility from Cuba and Haiti, but also caravans of Central Americans, which generates a greater concentration of foreigners with an irregular situation in the country,” explained the research professor at the Colegio de la Frontera. North (COLEF) Alberto Hernández Hernández.
The specialist in migration policies and human mobility pointed out that Mexico has maintained a containment policy in the recent decade, “there is no policy of opening or processing”, for which reason Mexico makes arrests, “although sometimes it is not as effective because the caravans exceed control and generate a hardening scheme from their imprisonment in migratory stations with the aim of returning them to their countries”.
In 2014, the number of detainees rose to almost 130,000 migrants, who went through an administrative process of which 95 percent ended up being deported to their country of origin, according to estimates by Rafael Alonso Hernández López, an academic from the Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
The professor considered that the increase occurs from 2014, with the then promising Comprehensive Program for the Southern Border derived from the crisis of migrant children, because in the summer of that year the United States detained more than 60 thousand girls, boys and teenagers.
“This generated pressure on the Mexican government, for which former President Peña Nieto was confronted about what was happening with immigration containment and he launched that program with the banner of ‘protecting foreigners in transit to the United States and avoiding abuses’ in national territory, but it resulted in the persecution and hunting of migrants”, explained the professor.
In the previous context, an upward trend began in the phenomenon, although in 2017 there was a decrease in the number of the population in the INM stay centers, which “could be due to the fact that the strict immigration containment programs imply a significant expense, because it requires mobilizing the police, maintaining the stations and paying for deportations, among other items”, but in 2018 it rose again with the emergence of the Central American caravans, and in 2019 the massive arrival continued”, explained Professor Hernández López.
Source: La Jornada
