In May, 2019, President Donald Trump threatened to impose a five percent tariff that would “gradually increase” on all imported goods from Mexico unless the country stopped the flow of undocumented immigrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. The tariffs would have been catastrophic for both the Mexican and American economies, and even received backlash from Republicans who threatened they would try to block them.
But a week later, Trump called off his plans citing an agreement with the Mexican government. In a joint declaration, Mexican government officials agreed to “take unprecedented steps to increase enforcement to curb irregular migration.” And they did. Mexico sent thousands of National Guard troops to its southern border and as a result, the U.S. migrant detentions dropped as much as 70 percent.
Currently, Mexico’s immigration policy is far harsher than what President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has let on. At the start of his presidency, AMLO publicly objected to much of the U.S.’s immigration plans and even offered humanitarian visas to thousands of migrants who crossed Mexico to reach the United States. But since then, Mexico appears to be doing Trump’s dirty work. While the Mexican government claims immigration stations were never at more than 50 percent of capacity in the last quarter of 2019, some facilities are severely overcrowded.
Doctors Without Borders reports that under the U.S.’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP)—in which asylum-seeking migrants are sent to Mexico to wait until their cases are ready to be heard by a judge—80 percent of asylum seekers report being victims of violence. Since January 29, 2019, more than 57,000 migrants have been sent to Mexico to await their trial in cities plagued with violence.
To make matters worse, the United Nations said 2019 was the deadliest year on record for migrants in the Americas. More than 800 people died last year migrating across the region, with 497 deaths occurring in the area surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, the Mexican government’s official language regarding migration remains euphemistic. Phrases like “assisted returns” are used instead of deported, migrants are not “detained” but rather transferred to “migration stations.” While AMLO and his administration work hard to pass off as a government that puts human rights at the forefront of their agenda, their immigration policy tells another story.
