Under pressure from US, Mexico speeds up deportation of migrants with southbound flight – Reuters

Author: Dave Graham (NYSE 🙂 e Laura Gottesdiener

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico, under pressure from the U.S. government to curb illegal immigration, has quietly moved thousands of illegal immigrants to the south of the country to speed their departure, officials and migrants said.

The government announced in late May https://www.gob.mx/inm/prensa/realiza-inm-retorno-asistido-de-932-personas-migrantes-rescatadas-en-la-frontera-de-mexico-con-estados- unidos? idiom = es made four return flights of migration when the so-called “air bridge” started south, but he didn’t say how many people were there.

Mexico has now sent about 13,000 people from northern cities to the southern border via about 100 flights, complementing the US effort https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-us-starts-flying-migrant-Families-in-said Two Mexican officials familiar with the matter that Mexico-Out-of-Border-Source-2021-08-06 will return migrants to Central America.

They say about 1,200 people have traveled south in the last week alone. These numbers have not been reported before.

Mexico’s National Institute of Migration declined to comment. The State Department said in a statement that it supports a humane immigration system that complies with national and international laws and is working with Washington to resolve immigration problems.

When the immigration leak surfaced, the Biden administration faced mounting criticism for its handling of the issue.

“This is all to welcome Americans who are very concerned about immigration,” a Mexican official said. “Efforts are being made to speed up the deportation,” he added.

At the same time, Mexico is pushing the United States to lift restrictions on non-essential travel across the common border during the pandemic.

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, the administration of US President Joe Biden began moving families from Central America and Mexico to southern Mexico to stem immigration, taking the lead in the manner of its predecessor, Donald Trump.

Immigrants on domestic flights to Mexico come from all over the world and are detained under Mexican law or expelled from the United States under Section 42 and other measures, a mechanism the Trump administration has used to speed up repatriations during the pandemic. Officials say.

Concerns about illegal immigrants at the southern US-Mexico border increased in 2021, putting pressure on Biden and the Mexican government to stem the flow.

Since October last year, US agents have arrested or deported 1,276 million illegal immigrants across the border, including nearly 200,000 in July alone.

A flight carrying dozens of migrants (including children) landed on Tuesday in the southern city of Tapachula, Reuters witnesses and observers from the Humanitarian Migrant Rights Alliance (CHIRLA), an advocacy organization, reported.

According to eyewitnesses, Mexican authorities then loaded the migrants into a bus, took them to a remote border crossing for about half an hour and ordered them to cross a footbridge into Guatemala.

A member of the Mexican National Guard in Tapachula said that when the plane landed, the migrants were taken by immigration buses to crossing points in Talisman and the city of Hidalgo, and then on to Guatemala from there.

The Guatemalan government did not respond to a request for comment.

On Tuesday’s trip, 26-year-old Honduran Antonio and his youngest son broke into tears when they found themselves in El Carmen, a small town in Guatemala.

Antonio declined to reveal his last name, saying that he and his son had been arrested by Mexican immigration authorities in the northern city of Monterrey and forced to board a flight south, despite his wish to seek asylum in Mexico.

Arturo Fiscara, the attorney for CHIRLA who recorded the Mexican flight, argued that this trial denied the migrants their right to asylum, leaving them “lying in Guatemala in the dead of night” and vulnerable to denial and crime.

Antonio responded to this concern.

“I have no burden,” he shouted. “And my son hasn’t eaten anything since yesterday.”

The Mexican government said in a statement that it was committed to protecting the rights of migrants and asylum seekers.