Mexico is scrambling to prevent a crisis at its border with the United States ahead of another Donald Trump presidency during which he has vowed mass deportations.
US authorities estimate that around 11 million unauthorized people, mostly from Mexico and Central America, live in the United States.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, threatened last month to impose steep 25-percent tariffs on imports from Mexico over the influx of migrants as well as drug trafficking.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is trying to appease Trump by preventing migrants from reaching the border between the two countries.
She spoke with Trump on November 27 and said she had explained that under her government’s strategy, migrant caravans were “attended to” before reaching the border.
– ‘Containment’ –
Several migrant caravans that left southern Mexico for the US border since November have dispersed, in most cases after receiving permits to stay in the country.
Mexico is applying a policy of “containment and wearing (migrants) down,” Stephanie Brewer, Mexico director of WOLA, a US-based organization that promotes rights in the Americas, told AFP.
Since Sheinbaum took office on October 1, Mexican authorities have intercepted nearly 5,400 undocumented migrants a day.
Official figures from December 3 showed that number was up from 3,400 at the end of her predecessor’s term, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
During Trump’s first term, Lopez Obrador deployed thousands of border guards to block Central American migrants, pleasing the Republican.
A rush to the border by migrants trying to enter the United States before the start of Trump’s second term predicted by some activists has failed to materialize.
Hostels in the Mexican frontier city of Ciudad Juarez have been half-empty for months, reflecting tougher immigration policies introduced by outgoing US President Joe Biden.
Migrants are now supposed to schedule an appointment through a cell phone application at an official port of entry.
The number of US border patrol encounters with migrants crossing over from Mexico illegally fell to around 54,000 in September, from a peak of nearly 250,000 in December 2024, according to the US government.
Source: AFP
