Pressed by U.S., Mexico hastens migrant expulsions with flights south

Talisman Mining

15/08/2021 13:00

By Dave Graham and Laura Gottesdiener
    MEXICO CITY, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Under pressure from the U.S.
government to contain illegal immigration, Mexico has been
quietly flying thousands of undocumented migrants to the south
of the country to expedite their departure, according to
officials and migrants.
    The government said 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
 it had carried out four return flights of migrants as it began
a so-called "air bridge" south, without saying how many people
were on them.
    Mexico has now sent roughly 13,000 people from northern
cities to its southern border on about 100 flights,
complementing U.S. efforts https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-us-starts-flying-migrant-families-into-mexico-far-border-source-2021-08-06
 to return migrants to Central America, two Mexican officials
familiar with the matter said.
    Some 1,200 people were flown south in the past week alone,
they said. The figures have not been previously reported.
    Mexico's National Migration Institute declined to comment.
The foreign ministry said in a statement it supported a humane
migratory system that respected national and international law,
and was working with Washington to tackle the causes of
migration.
    The migrant flights come as the Biden administration faces
increasing criticism over its management of the issue.
    "This is all being done to accommodate the Americans, who
are very worried about migration," said one of the Mexican
officials. "Efforts are being made to speed up expulsions."
    Mexico, meanwhile, is pushing for the United States to lift
restrictions on non-essential travel across their shared border
that were imposed during the pandemic.
    The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
    Earlier this month, the U.S. administration of President Joe
Biden began flying Central American and Mexican families to
southern Mexico to deter migration - resuming a practice seen
under his predecessor Donald Trump.
    The migrants put on the Mexican domestic flights were from
all over the world and had either been detained under Mexican
law, or expelled from the United States under measures such as
Title 42, a mechanism used to expedite removals in the pandemic
under the Trump administration, one of the officials said.
    Apprehensions of undocumented migrants on the U.S. southern
border with Mexico have leapt in 2021, piling pressure on Biden,
and with it, the Mexican government to stem the flow.
    Since October of last year, U.S. agents have conducted
1,276,000 apprehensions or expulsions of migrants crossing the
U.S. border illegally, including nearly 200,000 in July alone.
    On Tuesday, a flight carrying dozens of migrants, including
children, landed in the southern city of Tapachula, according to
a Reuters witness and observers from the Coalition for Humane
Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), an advocacy group.
    Mexican authorities then loaded the migrants onto buses,
drove them about a half an hour to a remote border crossing, and
instructed them to walk across the pedestrian bridge into
Guatemala, according to the witnesses.
    A member of Mexico's National Guard in Tapachula said that
when the planes land, the migrants are transported on
immigration agency buses to crossing points in Talisman and
Ciudad Hidalgo, from which they enter Guatemala.
    Guatemala's government did not respond to a request for
comment.
    Among those on Tuesday's flight was Antonio, a 26-year-old
Honduran, who broke down in tears after he and his young son
found themselves in the tiny Guatemalan town of El Carmen.
    Declining to give his last name, Antonio said that he and
his boy were apprehended by Mexican immigration authorities in
the northern city of Monterrey and made to board the southbound
plane, despite hoping to seek asylum in Mexico.
    Arturo Viscarra, staff attorney with CHIRLA, which has
documented the Mexican flights, argued the process was denying
migrants asylum rights, leaving them "dumped in the middle of
the night in Guatemala," vulnerable to deprivation and crime.
    Antonio echoed that concern.
    "I don't have a single peso," he said, weeping. "And my son
hasn't even eaten since yesterday."
    Mexico's government in its statement said it was committed
to protecting the rights of migrants and asylum seekers.

 (Reporting by Dave Graham and Laura Gottesdiener
Additional reporting by Jose Torres in Tapachula
Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
 ((dave.graham@thomsonreuters.com; +52 55 5282 7146; Reuters
Messaging: dave.graham.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))